Caribe Life Connections
Cuba bloggers test government limits
By George Ballantine | BBC News
Cuba's dynamic emerging blogging community has recently been testing the limits of free expression with posts ranging from vivid accounts of everyday life to sometimes risky calls for political change in the Communist-run state.
Bloggers — many of whom were born after the 1959 revolution — are trying to move debate away from the established official doctrine to exploring social and economic issues. Most still avoid direct criticism of the government, for fear of provoking a crackdown on the country's growing internet. However, the government's present tolerance could change, as an increasing number of bloggers are beginning to condemn the harassment of independent writers and are demanding structural reforms.
The New-York based media watchdog Commitee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a report published in mid-September welcomed the "surprisingly vibrant blogosphere" that has recently sprung to life in Cuba. "The bloggers, mainly young adults from a variety of professions, have opened a new space for free expression, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in the country's closed system," the CPJ said.
The emergence of independent bloggers is "evidence of a generation shift, a sign that even a country as isolated as Cuba is slowly moving into the 21st Century," Daniel Erikson, an expert at the Washington-based organisation Inter-American Dialogue said recently on US-based thedialogue.org. Laritza Diversent, a lawyer from Havana, says she and her fellow bloggers were part of the post-revolutionary youth. >>> Go to Full Story >>>