Castro's Internet

Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based independent media rights organisation, has today published a terrific report on Internet access in Cuba.

The report includes a survey of the censorship and control methods used by the Castro regime to stop the vast majority of Cubans from accessing the World Wide Web, as well as the first hand experiences of a French journalist who visited the island recently.

Of course, the regime blames the US commercial embargo for the fact that Cuba has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the world – the lowest in Latin America and down there with Uganda and Sri Lanka.

Reporters Without Borders concludes that while the embargo may have an impact on the speed of the connection (highly debatable), the problem is not speed but access, which is strictly controlled by the Communist Party.

“In a country where the media are under the government’s thumb, preventing independent reports and information from circulating online has naturally become a priority,” the report says.

Read the whole thing here. Recommended.