Cuba’s most popular blogger Yoani Sanchez said on Monday that Cuban authorities had blocked viewing of her blog and then allowed slow access to the website from Cuba.
Sanchez, whose critical “Generacion Y” blog received 1.2 million hits in February, said government censors had placed “filters” that delayed viewing of her Web page on a server in Germany ( http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/).
“This effectively blocks access to the blog. What Cuban with limited access to Internet is going to wait 15 minutes to see it?” Sanchez said.
On the weekend, attempts to view the site from Cuba met with a notice “The page cannot be displayed.” The state telecom monopoly ETECSA is Cuba’s only Internet service provider.
The 32-year-old Sanchez, a philology graduate, has drawn a considerable readership by writing about her daily life in Cuba and describing economic hardships and political constraints.
She has criticized Cuba’s new leader, Raul Castro, who formally took over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro last month, for his vague promises of change and minimal steps to improve the standard of living of Cubans.
“Who is the last in line for a toaster?” was the title of a recent blog that satirized the lifting of a ban on sales of computers, DVD players and other appliances Cubans long for, though toasters will not be freely sold until 2010.
In a country where the press is controlled by the state and there is no independent media, Sanchez and other Cubans have found in the Internet an unregulated vehicle of expression.
“This breath of fresh air has disheveled the hair of bureaucrats and censors,” she said in a telephone interview, vowing to continue her blog. “Anyone with a bit of computer skills knows how to get around them,” she said.
{Taken from Reuters}
See other article – Cuba Lifts Ban On Cmputers And DVD Players
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