Reporters wihouth
borders. May 4, 2201.
In a letter to Justice Minister Roberto T. Díaz Sotolongo, RSF
protested the arrest of José Orlando González Bridón,
accused of distributing "enemy propaganda" and "false information"
after publishing an article on a foreign-based website. He risks being
sentenced to seven years in prison. RSF asked for his immediate release and the
dismissal of all charges against him. "This arrest represents a toughening
of the repression against dissidents who publish their ideas on the web,"
said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. "The Cuban authorities are
no longer satisfied with controlling access to the net on the island, they are
also repressing the distribution of information on sites which the Cuban
population does not even have access to," added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, in mid-April 2001, González
Bridón's family was informed that he would be tried on 10 May. González
Bridón is the secretary-general of the Cuban Democratic Workers'
Confederation (Confederación de Trabajadores Democráticos de Cuba,
CTDC), an illegal entity. He is accused of distributing "enemy propaganda"
and "false information" with the aim of "provoking public
disorder". He risks being sentenced to seven years imprisonment. In an
article published on 5 August 2000 on the Cuba Free Press website
(cubafreepress.org), based in Florida (U.S.A.), the trade unionist called into
question the authorities' responsibility in the death of National CTDC
Coordinator Joanna González Herrera. González Bridón also
reported this information, which was deemed "subversive" by the court,
on a Miami-based radio station. He was arrested on 15 December and has been
detained as a precautionary measure. Aged fifty, he suffers from kidney
problems. González Bridón is also a member of the illegal 30
November Frank País Democratic party (Partido Democrático 30 de
noviembre Frank País). In Cuba, only the government press, unions and
official political organisations are authorised.
RSF recalls that journalist Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, director
of the independent press agency Línea Sur Press, is still imprisoned. In
November 1997, he was convicted and sentenced to six years' imprisonment for
insulting ("desacato") President Fidel Castro and vice president
Carlos Lage. He is being held at a forced labour camp in El Diamante, in
Cienfuegos province (centre of the island). Believing that he was not "politically
re-educated" yet, the camp authorities denied his petition for conditional
leave on 1 April. Theoretically, he could have had recourse to such an option as
of October for having completed half of his sentence.
In a report titled "The enemies of the Internet", published by RSF
in March, the organisation noted:
"In 1996, the Cuban government adopted executive order 209, "Access
from the Republic of Cuba to the Global Computer Network". A direct 64-kbps
connection with the United States was set up. Until then, Cuba's only access was
through Canada. This executive order specifies that Internet access should not
be "in violation of the moral principles of Cuban society or the country's
laws." E-mail must not "compromise national security".
Fidel Castro regularly denounces this "capitalist instrument of
manipulation, where most of the information available is in English".
Citizens who wish to have Internet access must provide "a valid reason".
If their request is accepted, they sign a users' contract with restrictive
clauses. Actually, only the Cuban nomenklatura has access: politicians,
high-level civil servants, intellectuals and journalists close to the
government, as well as ambassadors and foreign companies. Cuban companies who
export do not have full access to the Internet and must make do with e-mail.
A black market for e-mail addresses has spawned and is beneficial for the
few Cubans who own computers: but these, like fax machines, must be declared to
the government. Cuban Internet users suspect that the country's intelligence
services intercept their e-mail, because messages from other countries only
arrive several hours after being sent, if at all.
All of the country's Internet traffic runs through one server, and content
is censored on this computer using filters, blocking access to many sites.
Filtering occurs at several levels: the site's URL, its IP address and its
content are carefully examined and compared to a list of hundreds of keywords.
It seems, however, that young Internet users have gotten around these obstacles,
and have managed to access the entire Web.
The Internet has indirectly allowed independent journalists (approximately
one hundred in Cuba, who are harassed and considered to be "counter-revolutionaries")
to enlarge their audience. While they do not have Internet access, the many
sites of the Cuban community in exile, especially those in Miami, Florida,
publish their articles, which are sent by telephone or by fax.
The official newspapers, Granma, Juventud Rebelde ou Trabajadores, and the
national press agency Prensa Latina, all have their own web sites. The Cuban
regime censors the Internet but also uses it to disseminate its propaganda. |
