ubans are not permitted Internet accounts, but can use email services in state cybercafes, without access to navigate the web. -- PHOTO: AFP
HAVANA - Cuban bloggers are fighting a cyberwar with the government to give their own version of reality on the communist island, from hotels and using memory sticks and laptops obtained from abroad.
Bloggers with 'alternative' agendas say it is becoming harder to evade official censorship, although they have managed to multiply in the past three years in a country where Internet access is limited.
Blogs on foreign servers
Bloggers are hosted by foreign servers, write their texts offline and save them on memory cards before updating their blogs from hotel connections or emailing friends to post their updates abroad.
Havana accuses them of being on the payroll of Washington and other governments in a bid to denigrate the 50-year-old Cuban revolution.
The government argues that it has the right to block sites which 'encourage subversion.' Around 30 blogs such as 'Generacion Y' (Generation Y) - the internationally-renowned blog of Yoani Sanchez - touch sensitive themes such as Cuban travel permits, flaws in the health and education systems, political prisoners or daily hardships.
Some local journalists have also fought back against what they call 'distorted information' about Cuba found in the blogs.
They recently set up a rival website, blogcip.cu, posting a photo of Yoani Sanchez using the Internet in what they said was a luxurious hotel, alongside the text: 'the unhappy girl who sells herself as a victim of ruthless persecution.' 'Welcome to the blogosphere!' the 33-year-old Sanchez said in an interview with AFP.
'I didn't say I was in hiding. I prefer to save money to go online and recount the reality that isn't reflected in the Cuban press, which repeats the official discourse,' the literature graduate said.
Cubans are not permitted Internet accounts, but can use email services in state cybercafes, without access to navigate the web.
Although several hotels sell Internet connection cards, their cost - eight dollars an hour - is prohibitive in a country where the average monthly salary is 17 dollars.
The government accuses the decades-old US embargo of preventing Cuba from accessing underwater cables and forcing it to use slower satelite connections instead. Work, research and study centers therefore have priority for Internet connections. -- AFP
