Pope says Cuban Marxism needs change, government steps up pressures on dissidents
Posted on Friday, 03.23.12
Pope says Cuban Marxism needs change, government steps up pressures on dissidents
Cuban government steps up detentions and intimidations of dissidents as Pope Benedict XVI lands in Mexico to begin the first leg of his visit to the region. He arrives in Cuba on Monday.By Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Pope Benedict XVI on Friday declared that Cuba’s brand of Marxism “no longer responds to reality,” while dissidents reported the island’s security forces were arresting or intimidating dozens of opposition activists in advance of the papal visit.
The pontiff spoke to journalists aboard the Italian jetliner delivering him to a three-day visit to Mexico. Benedict will fly to Cuba on Monday to start a three-day visit to Havana and Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second largest city.
In Cuba, “today it is evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality,” the Associated Press quoted the pope as saying. “So you have to find new models, with patience, and in a constructive way.”
He said the process “requires patience and also decisiveness,” according to the AP, and added that the church wants to help “in the spirit of dialogue to avoid trauma and to help bring about a just and fraternal society.”
In Havana, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, asked about the pontiff’s comments, told journalists that the island’s governing system “is a democratic social project … which is constantly perfecting itself.”
Dissidents reported a rising wave of arrests and other government pressures on critics, however, in an apparent attempt to ensure that they will not be able to stage any public protests during papal events.
“The repression is growing by the hour,” said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz. “We are already receiving reports of detentions, above all in the (eastern) region of Santiago … tens, dozens of reports.”
“The arrests, beatings, and threats against dissidents in the lead up to the pope’s visit suggest the Cuban government will do everything in its power to quash any dissent while the world’s attention is on the island,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch. “These repressive acts underscore just how little space there is in Cuba for any view that doesn’t align with the Castro government.”
Dissidents reported Friday that police had detained Ladies in White member Liudmila Rodríguez and four male government opponents in the town of Palma Soriano, 18 miles northwest of Santiago.
The men were identified as Vilmar Mustelier Galá, Miguel Rafael Cabrera Montoya, Jose Batista Falcón and Jose Enrique Martinez, all members of the Cuban Patriotic Union.
Union spokesman José Daniel Ferrer García also reported that three Ladies in White — Anni Sarrión, Milagros Leyva and Maritza Cardoza — and dissident Rafael Meneses Pupo were detained earlier this week in the eastern town of Banes.
Police also detained Juan Carlos Vazquez Osoria in the eastern town of Moa, Mary Blanca Avila in nearby Velazco, and Yaquelín García in the city Bayámo, Ferrer added. Avila and García are members of the Ladies in White.
Union member Rolando Humberto Gonzalez Rodriguez also reported that elite military units known as Special Troops had staged a showy deployment in Palma and neighboring Palmarito del Cauto to intimidate other dissidents.
Catholic activist Oswaldo Payá complained in an Internet post that “in Havana and Santiago there is an undeclared state of siege” because the government “is afraid of the people.”
In Havana, Sonia Garro and Ramón Alejandro Muñoz, active in a movement demanding equality for black Cubans, were detained Friday in what one dissident described as a violent police raid on their home.
Police also summoned Oscar Elias Biscet, one of the country’s best known dissidents and a former political prisoner, and his wife Elsa Morejón to a “meeting” in Havana. Biscet sent a Tweet saying, “I refuse to go to the police station. The police exist to protect the citizen, not to crush humane ideas.”
And popular blogger Yoani Sanchez reported that two apparent State Security agents tried to stop her as she left her apartment building Friday, but she ran past them. She later sent a Tweet saying that if the police want to talk to her, “let them put it in writing.”
Sánchez Santa Cruz, meanwhile, also reported that police have been sweeping up drunkards, beggars and homeless from the streets of Havana, apparently to clean up the capital’s image in advance of the papal visit.
Some were arrested, the activist said, but others were given fresh clothes and shoes and told to turn out for papal events.
In Mexico on Friday, President Felipe Calderón and first lady Margarita Zavala greeted the pope on his arrival and escorted him along a red carpet amid a clanging of church bells and cheers from a crowd waving Vatican flags. A swelling throng gathered to cheer him along his path from the airport on his first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America.
The streets of Leon took on a carnival atmosphere as the crowds and their enthusiasm grew steadly. Police blocked traffic on the central boulevard of Leon that the pope would travel, and people lined up three and four deep on both sides of the avenue. Everyone stopped to watch the arrival by television in restaurants and shops.
“Mexico is standing because we’re a country that perseveres with hope and solidarity, we’re a people with values and principles that believe in family, liberty, justice and democracy,” Calderón said to cheers of “Viva!” from the crowd. “Your visit fills us with joy in moments of great tribulation.”
The pope called on Mexicans to conquer an “idolatry of money” that feeds drug violence.
This report includes material from The Associated Press.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/23/v-fullstory/2710463/pope-says-cuban-marxism-needs.html
Cuba arrests dissidents ahead of papal visit
March 19, 2012 12:13 AM
Cuba arrests dissidents ahead of papal visit
Members of dissident group Ladies in White take part in their weekly march in front of Santa Rita church in Havana, Cuba, Sunday March 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)
(AP) HAVANA – Cuban authorities detained a prominent dissident and dozens of her colleagues early Sunday, then rounded up more activists while they staged a weekly protest march through Havana.
Police took away Bertha Soler and three dozen supporters of the Ladies in White dissident group hours before they were to take part in a regular march down Quinta Avenida in the leafy Miramar neighborhood of Havana.
"They were arrested," said Angel Moya, Soler's husband and a former political prisoner himself. Soler was also detained briefly Saturday evening, he said.
About 30 other Ladies supporters did make it to the march, which began peacefully, but state security agents moved in when the Ladies tried to extend the protest into streets they don't normally enter. All were escorted onto a bus belonging to state security. By Sunday evening, many had been released and some driven back to their homes, though Soler was apparently still being held.
The Ladies in White formed in 2003, shortly after authorities jailed 75 intellectuals, activists and social commentators in a notorious crackdown on dissent, sentencing them to long prison terms. All have since been freed, and many have gone into exile.
Cuba has cleared its jails of most political prisoners, but human rights groups say the government of President Raul Castro has stepped up short-term detentions and other forms of harassment against the island's tiny opposition.
Cuba denies it holds any political prisoners, and says the dissidents are nothing more than common criminals and mercenaries paid by Washington to stir up trouble. It scoffs at criticism of its human rights record by the West, saying its Marxist system provides citizens with free health care and education, and many other subsidies, while capitalist countries are plagued by poverty.
Sunday's detentions came just over a week before a March 26-28 visit by Pope Benedict XVI, who is likely to encourage the government to adopt increased religious, political and human rights during his tour, at least privately. It also comes days after Cuban Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega asked police to remove a group of 13 opposition members who had occupied a church in Central Havana for two days.
While the church won assurances that the group members would not be prosecuted, the church-sanctioned raid and its hardline stance throughout the standoff was derided by many dissidents, even those who had opposed the initial occupation.
While many praise Ortega for mediating the release of political prisoners in 2010 and occasionally speaking out in favor of greater economic and political freedom on this Communist-run island, others say he has not done enough.
They say Thursday's decision to call in police to remove dissidents from the Church of Charity demonstrates Ortega's lack of sympathy. Sunday's events will likely provide more fodder for those critics.
Elizardo Sanchez, who monitors human rights on the island and acts as a de facto spokesman for the opposition, expressed astonishment at the posture of Ortega, whom he has often praised in the past.
"I can't get over my astonishment over what has happened in these last few days," Sanchez told The Associated Press. "The cardinal is acting like the first two of the three wise monkeys," who could neither see evil nor hear it.
Even as members of the Ladies in White were being detained, Ortega was performing Mass at the grand Cathedral in Old Havana. His sermon inside the baroque, stone edifice before several hundred worshippers did not mention the week's drama, nor did he say anything about human rights in general. Instead, he kept his comments focused on religion and the pontiff's imminent arrival.
"With a sense of gratitude, enjoyment and profound spiritual peace, and with the gifts that God has given us we prepare to receive the Pope," said the 75-year-old Ortega. "Let God grant us a truly warm reception for the Holy Father, and let his visit bear abundant fruit."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57399670/cuba-arrests-dissidents-ahead-of-papal-visit/
Cuba detains dissidents ahead of papal visit
Posted on Sunday, 03.18.12
Cuba detains dissidents ahead of papal visitBy PAUL HAVENAssociated Press
HAVANA — Cuban authorities detained a prominent dissident and dozens of her colleagues early Sunday, then rounded up more activists while they staged a weekly protest march through Havana just days before a visit by Pope Benedict XVI.
Police took away Bertha Soler and three dozen supporters of the Ladies in White dissident group hours before they were to take part in a regular march down Quinta Avenida in the leafy Miramar neighborhood of Havana.
"They were arrested," said Angel Moya, Soler's husband and a former political prisoner himself. Soler was also detained briefly Saturday evening, he said.
About 30 other Ladies supporters did make it to the march, which began peacefully, but state security agents moved in when the Ladies tried to extend the protest into streets they don't normally enter. All were escorted onto a bus belonging to state security. By Sunday evening, many had been released and some driven back to their homes, though Soler was apparently still being held.
The Ladies in White formed in 2003, shortly after authorities jailed 75 intellectuals, activists and social commentators in a notorious crackdown on dissent, sentencing them to long prison terms. All have since been freed, and many have gone into exile.
Cuba has cleared its jails of most political prisoners, but human rights groups say the government of President Raul Castro has stepped up short-term detentions and other forms of harassment against the island's tiny opposition.
Cuba denies it holds any political prisoners, and says the dissidents are nothing more than common criminals and mercenaries paid by Washington to stir up trouble. It scoffs at criticism of its human rights record by the West, saying its Marxist system provides citizens with free health care and education, and many other subsidies, while capitalist countries are plagued by poverty.
The U.S. State Department criticized the detentions of Soler and the other activists.
"We strongly condemn this assault on peaceful members of Cuba's civil society," spokeswoman Neda A. Brown said. "The fact that so many members of the Damas de Blanco were rounded up and detained by the Cuban government as they were congregating for religious services barely a week before the visit of Pope Benedict is particularly reprehensible and in violation of the democratic norm in the Western Hemisphere."
The detentions came just over a week before a March 26-28 visit by Benedict, who is likely to encourage the government to adopt increased religious, political and human rights during his tour, at least privately. It also comes days after Cuban Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega asked police to remove a group of 13 opposition members who had occupied a church in Central Havana for two days.
While the church won assurances that the group members would not be prosecuted, the church-sanctioned raid and its hardline stance throughout the standoff was derided by many dissidents, even those who had opposed the initial occupation.
While many praise Ortega for mediating the release of political prisoners in 2010 and occasionally speaking out in favor of greater economic and political freedom on this Communist-run island, others say he has not done enough.
They say Thursday's decision to call in police to remove dissidents from the Church of Charity demonstrates Ortega's lack of sympathy. Sunday's events will likely provide more fodder for those critics.
Elizardo Sanchez, who monitors human rights on the island and acts as a de facto spokesman for the opposition, expressed astonishment at the posture of Ortega, whom he has often praised in the past.
"I can't get over my astonishment over what has happened in these last few days," Sanchez told The Associated Press. "The cardinal is acting like the first two of the three wise monkeys," who could neither see evil nor hear it.
Even as members of the Ladies in White were being detained, Ortega was performing Mass at the grand Cathedral in Old Havana. His sermon inside the baroque, stone edifice before several hundred worshippers did not mention the week's drama, nor did he say anything about human rights in general. Instead, he kept his comments focused on religion and the pontiff's imminent arrival.
"With a sense of gratitude, enjoyment and profound spiritual peace, and with the gifts that God has given us we prepare to receive the Pope," said the 75-year-old Ortega. "Let God grant us a truly warm reception for the Holy Father, and let his visit bear abundant fruit."
—
Associated Press writers Anne-Marie Garcia and Andrea Rodriguez contributed to this report.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/18/2700737/cuba-detains-dissidents-ahead.html
Many hope Pope Benedict will address tough issues in Cuba
Posted on Monday, 03.19.12
Many hope Pope Benedict will address tough issues in CubaBy Mimi WhitefieldThe Miami Herald
For centuries, pilgrims have come to the Our Lady of Charity shrine with wishes for a cure for ill health, a better economy, and improved relationships. Now Cubans inside and outside the island also have a long list of wishes for Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Cuba to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of a statue of the Virgin.
Benedict, who begins a two-country visit in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato on Friday, will arrive in Santiago de Cuba on March 26 to mark the the Jubilee year of the discovery in the Bay of Nipe. The statue of the Virgin, who became Cuba's patron saint in 1916, is now ensconced in a shrine in El Cobre, a mining town about 12 miles northwest of Santiago.
The pope has said he comes to Mexico and Cuba as a pilgrim of charity "to proclaim the word of Christ and the conviction that this is a precious time to evangelize.''
But the list of topics those in South Florida hope he will address is long, ranging from calling for Catholic education in Cuba to meeting with dissidents on the island to requesting freedom for jailed American subcontractor Alan Gross.
There were results from the 1998 visit by Pope John Paul II to Cuba, and many would like to see some this time around also: After John Paul's visit, a new convent and seminary opened, the government permitted occasional Masses and addresses to be broadcast on state-controlled media — and Christmas, long a regular day of work, became a national holiday.
"There's a long way to go, however, and I think Benedict will address that,'' said Msgr. Franklyn M. Casale, the president of St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. "The return of Catholic schools would be a great breakthrough.''
Former President Fidel Castro received a Jesuit education, but after the 1959 revolution, religious schools across the island were closed. St. Thomas, which traces its roots to the Universidad de Santo Tomás de Villanueva, founded in 1946 by Augustinian friars, was one of them.
After the friars were expelled in 1961, they came to South Florida and founded Biscayne College, which later became St. Thomas.
More than 50 years after that, Casale took a group of 10 students and three faculty members to Cuba on a weekend pilgrimage and what he called a "learning experience'' earlier this month.
Casale said he expects the 84-year-old pope to talk about religious freedom, education and human rights. "These are all very regular themes in his pontificate,'' said Casale.
Human rights may be a regular theme, but an item high on many exiles' wish list — a meeting with island dissidents — is more controversial. Dissident and human rights groups have sent letters and petitions to the pope asking for such a meeting.
In Miami, a group of young professionals has launched One Cuba, a Facebook campaign urging the pope to meet with human rights activists during his trip and asking people to sign their petition.
Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also appealed to the pope "to show his support for the Cuban people by meeting with peaceful dissident groups, including those practicing their faith while bringing attention to human rights violations, the Ladies in White and Jorge García Pérez (Antúnez)'' in a recent written statement.
The Ladies in White are relatives of political prisoners who dress in white during weekly marches. García, a human rights activist known as Antúnez, was jailed for 17 years. Pope John Paul II asked for his release during his 1998 trip, but he was held until 2007.
Former political prisoner Guillermo Fariñas, in a letter to Benedict, asked the pope to address themes such as freedom for all political prisoners, the end to violence against the opposition, free travel for all Cubans, and a dialogue between government authorities and the peaceful opposition. Fariñas suggested it would be better for Benedict to postpone his trip if he could not. But the occupation of a basilica that's part of the Our Lady of Charity church in Havana last week by 13 dissidents seems to have opened a rift between the Catholic Church and the dissident movement.
"No one has the right to convert temples into political trenches,'' said a statement signed by Orlando Márquez, spokesman for the archdiocese of Havana.
And after his attempts at persuasion didn't work, Cardinal Jaime Ortega requested that police remove the dissidents from the church although, Márquez said, he requested that they be allowed to return to their homes and not be charged. However, some of the dissidents said they were still threatened with prosecution after the pope leaves.
That seemed to put even more distance between Ortega and the fractured dissident movement — even though it was his dialogue with President Raúl Castro that led to the release last year of 130 political prisoners, most of whom were required to go into exile in Spain.
"Generally speaking the Church has been careful not to bring the dissidents under its skirts,'' said Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski. "I think the dissidents understand this has to be their own project.''
He said he didn't know if the pope would be meeting with dissidents and human right activists. But he noted that if Benedict were to telegraph such an intention, "he probably wouldn't be able to find them" — a reference to a government policy of frequent, short-term detentions of dissidents in recent months.
As far as his own wishes for the pope's trip, Wenski said, "I'll allow myself to be pleasantly surprised.''
But Andy Gomez, a University of Miami Cuba analyst who will be going on the archdiocese pilgrimage, is specific about what he would like to see the pope do: reach out to dissidents and invite the Ladies in White to one of his Masses, talk about human rights abuses — and specifically reach out to the Afro-Cuban community.
Many of the more recent dissidents are black, poor and less likely to have family members abroad who can send them remittances to help make ends mean during tough economic times, Gomez pointed out. And without strong messages from the pope, he said, "my concern is that people may be looking at the Church as betraying the Cuban people or not doing enough. You've got to build bridges to the Cuban people.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/19/v-fullstory/2701883/many-hope-pope-benedict-will-address.html
Many have complained about Cuban prisons, but no independent inspections have been allowed
Posted on Friday, 03.16.12
Many have complained about Cuban prisons, but no independent inspections have been allowedBut there have been many complaints about conditionsBy Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
On a wall in Havana's Combinado del Este prison, there's a quote from Fidel Castro boasting of his revolution's effort to educated Cubans, even those in prison: "Wherever the uneducated may be … let's educate them."
The sign, 11 words in Spanish, has two glaring misspellings.
More than anything else, the sign today underscores the gap between the government's repeated claims to run a humane prison system, and the realities of incarceration in an island with few resources and little patience with indiscipline, criminal or political.
Ten videos smuggled out the Combinado del Este prison and made public Thursday showed foul toilets, moldy cell walls, leaking sewage and food described as meager and worse than "animal feed."
But comparing Cuban prisons to those in other countries is impossible, because Cuba does not allow the Red Cross, the United Nations or other independent organizations to inspect its prisons.
"We know there are problems in prisons in Latin America, Africa and Asia. But those are publicly known. In the case of Cuba, there is no real information," said Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz.
Although the Cuban government does not make public figures on its prison system, Sánchez' Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation estimates the island has 70,000 to 80,000 inmates in about 200 prisons and labor camps. Cuba had 14 prisons and an estimated 4,000 inmates before Castro's revolution in 1959.
In a country of 11.2 million people, the 70,000 figure would amount to 625 persons per 100,000. The United States had the world's highest documented incarceration rate in 2009, at 743 per 100,000.
José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas program at Human Rights Watch, said he saw only prison offices when he met 10 political prisoners during a 1995 visit, but the prisoners told him conditions were "absolutely awful, terrible, inhuman."
Much of the information about Cuban prisons in recent years has come from jailed dissidents because common prisoners are usually more afraid of retribution if they go public with complaints, Sánchez said by phone from Havana.
Anderlay Guerra, 33, who served four years for trying to leave Cuba illegally, said that guards at his prison in Guantánamo often beat prisoners and left them for hours handcuffed in a position known as The Rocker — on their stomachs, hands tied behind their backs to the opposite legs.
Another position was called the Shakira because it forces prisoners to shuffle somewhat like the Colombian singer, he told El Nuevo Herald Thursday by phone from Cuba.
Former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer said he witnessed guards using the Shakira on prisoners for up to three days at a time and taking bribes from inmates. He suffered through bad food, no medicines and hordes of mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats.
Prisoners also mutilated themselves in an effort to obtain medical discharges, according to scores of reports, and complained that corrupt prison officials pocket the salaries they earn by working.
Dania Virgen García, the dissident journalist who helped smuggle the videos out of the Combinado del Este prison and has reported on other prison conditions, noted one improvement last year.
After many complaints about the women's Manto Negro prison in Havana, she reported last spring, authorities transferred the women to a fixed-up low security labor camp known as El Guatao.
Prison overcrowding has long been a major problem throughout Latin America. The Combinado del Este prison was built to house about 2,500 inmates, now holds about 4,000 and in the 1970s held 11,000, Sánchez said.
A Honduran prison where more than 350 inmates died in a fire last month was built for about 500 inmates but had about 800, stacked in six-level bunks. In El Salvador, its 19 prisons were built to hold 8,000 people but now hold 24,000, according to a New York Times report Tuesday that noted another problem in Latin American prisons: that large majorities of the inmates spend years awaiting trials.
Sánchez noted the Cuban legal processes are much more swift. Trials usually last only hours and three youths who tried to hijack a boat in 2003 were tried, sentenced and executed by firing squad in less than a week.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/16/2696215/many-have-comlained-about-cuban.html
And Now Against Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez
And Now Against Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia / Jorge Luis García Pérez AntunezAntunez, Translator: Unstated
Believe me that I have neither read, nor do I care to read the article written by the notorious spy and mercenary in the service of the Castros, the Guatemalan Percy Alvarado who, in the most ruthless and most of all cowardly way, attacks the former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, one of the most emblematic and important leaders of the Cuban resistance.
And I emphasize what a coward he is, because there is nothing brave in a man attacking a man or people, without giving them the opportunity to defend or explain their views. And back to that famous phrase: "I do not care they speak ill of me, the question is who and why."
This Percy Alvarado has been against the Eastern Democratic Alliance and against the Central Opposition Coalition. Now I understand, rather, I am more convinced than ever, of the terror tyranny has for the valuable work of consensus and coordination of regional coalitions. Now I realize that it is not only Mr. Alvarado, but there in the East and not far away is José Daniel there in one more individual in the service of the regime, which is determined not only to destroy the Eastern Democratic Alliance and the Patriotic Union of Cuba, but also to confront them through public battles between these two main elements of the struggle in that eastern region and I mean these two unparalleled Titans: Rolando Rodriguez Lobaina and Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, whose unity and consensus is what the regime fears.
Fortunately, more than a few of us are aware of that dirty strategy, which we know is cooked up in the laboratories of the political police of Villa Marista and its counterpart department in Santiago de Cuba. But both Mr. Percy Alvarado and his partner in Santiago de Cuba have had their answer. The cacerolazo — the banging on pots and pans protest — this January 24, 2012 and the perseverance and commitment to the victims of these attacks, for which the fight is already more than enough.
These maneuvers of entertainment, seeking to deviate from what we do and our way, are as we say in street slang, por gustavo (a street way of saying that something is done in vain), for pleasure. And the more they attack us the stronger we grow, the more people like and know about us. They are wasting time.
Ever onward Brother Joseph Daniel, your moral and patriotic stature grows by the day. And those attacks by Percy Alvarado and his followers make your brothers admire and like you more.
January 27 2012
Beset by online surveillance and content filtering, netizens fight on
Beset by online surveillance and content filtering, netizens fight onPublished on Monday 12 March 2012.
This report, which presents the 2012 list of countries that are "Enemies of the Internet" and "under surveillance," updates the report published on 12 March 2011.
The last report, released in March 2011 at the climax of the Arab Spring, highlighted the fact that the Internet and social networks have been conclusively established as tools for protest, campaigning and circulating information, and as vehicles for freedom. In the months that followed, repressive regimes responded with tougher measures to what they regarded as unacceptable attempts to "destabilize" their authority. In 2011, netizens were at the heart of the political changes in the Arab world and elsewhere. They tried to resist the imposition of a news and information blackout but paid a high price.
At the same time, supposedly democratic countries continued to set a bad example by yielding to the temptation to prioritize security over other concerns and by adopting disproportionate measures to protect copyright. Internet users in "free" countries have learned to react in order to protect what they have won. Some governments stepped up pressure on technical service providers to act as Internet cops. Companies specializing in online surveillance are becoming the new mercenaries in an online arms race. Hacktivists are providing technical expertise to netizens trapped by a repressive regime's apparatus. Diplomats are getting involved. More than ever before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy issue.
New media keep pushing back the boundaries of censorship
Online social networks complicate matters for authoritarian regimes that are trying to suppress unwanted news and information. It was thanks to netizens that Tunisians learned about the street vendor who set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid and Egyptians learned about Khaled Said, the young netizen who was beaten to death by police outside an Alexandria Internet café. It was thanks to social networks that Sidi Bouzid and Khaled Said became news stories and went on to become cornerstones of the Arab Spring.
The revolution of microblogs and opinion aggregators and the faster dissemination of news and information that results, combined with the growing use of mobile phones to livestream video, are all increasing the possibilities of freeing information from its straightjacket. The mixing of journalism and activism has been accentuated in extreme situations such as Syria, where ordinary citizens, appalled by the bloodshed, are systematically gathering information for dissemination abroad, especially by the international news media, so the outside world knows about the scale of the brutal crackdown taking place.
Even the total news and information blackout in North Korea, the "Hermit Kingdom," is being challenged. Mobile phones give those who live near the Chinese border the possibility of being linked to the rest of the world. And the border is sufficiently porous to allow mobile phones, CDs, DVDs and USB flash drives containing articles and other content to be smuggled in from China.
In Turkmenistan, an "Information 2.0" war was started by a deadly explosion at an arms depot in the Ashgabat suburb of Abadan in July 2011. For the first time, netizens managed to break through the regime's wall of silence by using their mobile phones to film video of the explosion and its aftermath and post it online. They subsequently paid a high price.
Saudi Arabia's relentless censorship has not been able to prevent women from fighting for the right to drive or vote and getting their fight relayed on the Internet, attracting the international community's attention and, as a result, a degree of attention within the country.
In 2011, use of online information to rally support was not limited to "political" goals. The Internet also buzzed with condemnation of corruption and social abuses, including the protests by the residents of the Chinese village of Wukan against the seizure of their farmland by unscrupulous officials, and the documentation of electoral fraud in Russia.
In Vietnam, it is still dangerous to blog about the Chinese-run bauxite mines and their disastrous impact on the environment. The highland region where the mines are located is virtually sealed off. Its few visitors cannot take cameras, video-cameras or smartphones with them. The aim is to prevent the dissemination of potentially-embarrassing video footage. The Bauxitevietnam.info website is nonetheless managing to obtain information and is doing its best to cover the situation.
Internet and mobile phone shutdowns become commonplace
Repressive regimes have learned the lesson. Keeping the media at bay, intimidating witnesses and blocking access to a few news websites are not enough to ensure the success of a news blackout. A much more effective way is to seal off the area concerned to prevent unwanted witness from entering and any digital content from leaving, and to cut off communications by blocking SMS messaging and by shutting down Internet access and mobile phone services in a temporary or targeted manner.
Egypt showed the way at the height of the demonstrations at the end of February 2011 by cutting Internet access for five days, an unprecedented move. Other countries, such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Kazakhstan, have blocked SMS for the first ones or suspended the Internet for the last one during elections or unrest, or even ahead of anticipated unrest. China uses the well-tested tactic of suspending communications in cities or provinces when it loses control of the situation. Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were the first victims.
Nonetheless, shutting down the Internet is a drastic solution that can create problems for the authorities and can hurt the economy. Slowing the Internet connection speed right down is more subtle but also effective as it makes it impossible to send or receive photos or videos. Iran is past master at this. Syria's censors also play with the Internet connection speed, fluctuations being a good indicator of the level of repression in a given region.
Bahrain is an example of a news blackout succeeding thanks to an impressive combination of technical, judicial and physical censorship methods.
More content filtering
As soon as the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt got under way, most regimes that censor the Internet quickly reinforced online content filtering in a bid to head off any possibility of similar unrest spreading to their own countries. Some regimes have adopted filtering as standard tool of governance, one that strengthens their hold on power. Livestreaming sites and social networks are often the most affected.
In Uzbekistan, the government blocked access to forums where ordinary members of the public discussed the Arab revolutions. In China, the word "Jasmine" and the word "Occupy" followed by the name of a Chinese city were blocked online. In Belarus, where there were major demonstrations, the social network Vkontakte was rendered inaccessible. The Kazakh authorities reacted in a similarly disproportionate manner, blocking not only a few "extremist" sites but also the entire LiveJournal blog platform.
Turkey seems to have backed away from an announced plan, bordering on the ridiculous, to censor 138 words online. It has nonetheless created a system of online content filtering which, although optional, is seen as a veiled form of censorship.
The new Thai government boasts that more online content has been blocked in the past few months than in the previous three years. The grounds given for this new threat to freedom of expression is the need to combat lèse-majesté.
Continuing vigilance is needed in Tunisia where Ammar 404, the nickname for the online filtering and surveillance system established by deposed President Ben Ali, could be revived as a result of a possible judicial decision to require filtering for pornographic content.
South Korea has decided to increase the number of blocked websites in response to the North's propaganda. Tajikistan, which does not figure in this report, has blocked Facebook and news websites while Pakistan is accused of wanting to build its own Great Electronic Wall.
More content removal, pressure on technical service providers
Censors are increasingly trying to enlist private-sector Internet companies in online surveillance and censorship. Some cooperate, others resist. Under government pressure, Chinese micro-blogging websites such as Sina Weibo have had to hire thousands of moderators and now require users to register under their real name.
Website hosting companies are under growing pressure to remove content in response to "notice and take down" process, a procedure likely to lead to abuses, as UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue has stressed. In Thailand, Prachatai news website editor Chiranuch Premchaiporn is facing a possible 20-year jail sentence for failing to react with sufficient speed when told to remove comments posted by site visitors that were critical of the monarchy.
India is one of the countries where more and more pressure is being put on Internet service providers and website hosting companies. The authorities there are trying to persuade them to provide a preview of content so that anything "shocking" or liable to provoke sectarian strife can be eliminated.
Threat to Net neutrality and online free speech from "right to be forgotten"
More and more individuals are requesting that information involving them be deleted from online archives on the grounds of a supposed "right to be forgotten" or "right to digital oblivion." European commissioner for justice Viviane Reding fuelled concern on 8 November by referring to a proposed directive that would allow anyone to request the deletion of content of a personal nature "for legitimate reasons."
A generalized "right to oblivion," enshrined in a law, would be hard to reconcile with online freedom of expression and information. Such a law would be hard to implement in practice and could place an impossible obligation on content editors and hosting companies – the complete erasure of online content. A thorough debate is need to determine whether individual rights are not already sufficiently guaranteed by existing legal provisions on the right to privacy, media offences, personal data and recourse to the courts.
Surveillance getting more effective and more intrusive
Internet content filtering is growing but Internet surveillance is growing even more. Censors prefer to monitor dissidents' online activities and contacts rather than try to prevent them from going online. The police chief in the United Arab Emirates, for example, has acknowledged that the police monitor social networks.
The security services no longer interrogate and torture a prisoner for the names of his accomplices. Now they want his Facebook, Skype and Vkontakte passwords. It is the same in Bahrain, Turkmenistan or Syria.
The protection of networks of dissidents and reporters' sources is one of the leading challenges in the fight for information. Foreign reporters visiting sensitive countries should take special precautions in accordance with local conditions. It is no longer enough to take a bullet-proof vest when setting off for a war zone or troubled region. A "digital survival kit" is also needed to encrypt information, anonymize communications and, if necessary, circumvent censorship.
Attempts to "phish" for social network usernames and passwords have been reported in Syria and Iran, as well as the use of false security certificates. The attempts were reported in Syria after the authorities had stopped blocking access to Facebook – something that was clearly done not as a conciliatory gesture but in order to facilitate surveillance.
The neutralization of encryption, anonymization and circumvention tools is also being prioritized by repressive regimes. Iran is now capable of blocking https and the ports used by Virtual Private Networks. China is able to restrict the number of IP addresses that can connect to the international network at the same time.
To enhance their surveillance abilities, repressive regimes turn to specialized companies for ever more effective equipment and software for filtering, monitoring and Deep Packet Inspection. The SpyFiles which WikiLeaks has published are a mine of information on the subject. The companies they use are very often western ones that have been lured by a very lucrative market.
They include the US company BlueCoat, criticized for its activities in Syria, the French company Amesys, which supplied Col. Gaddafi, and Vodafone, the target of an ANHRI suit in Egypt. The Italian company AreaSpa finally pulled out of Syria after an international campaign criticizing its cooperation with the Assad regime. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution supporting tougher regulation of exports to repressive countries. A bill with similar aims is currently before the US congress.
In her book Consent of the Networked, journalist and Internet specialist Rebecca MacKinnon has rightly stressed the need for Internet users the world over to raise questions about the way technology is used in order to ensure that their rights and freedoms are protected.
Propaganda rules the Web
North Korea has taken its propaganda war against its southern neighbour on to the Web, establishing a presence on social networks. Cuban propaganda continues to attack bloggers who criticize the government, accusing them of being mercenaries working for the American "empire".
China has signed up "50-cents", bloggers paid to post messages endorsed by the party, ever since the disturbances that shook in Inner Mongolia after a protesting herder was killed by a truck. Propaganda messages like this one have taken root on the Internet: "Dear students and friends, it was just a road accident. Some people with an ulterior motive have interpreted as an ethnic conflict, or linked to oil and gas. The government is taking this case very seriously … We hope that students will not believe the rumours …" The government is believed to have an arsenal of 40,000 microblogs to communicate with the population.
Syria's cyber army is expert in the art of trolling the Facebook walls of opponents and dissidents, often with the aim of discrediting them, and to drown out critical comments with a tide of praise for the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Twitter accounts have been created to exploit the #Syria hashtag, sending out hundreds of tweets with keywords that link to sports results or photos of the country.
Bahrain is spending millions to polish its image abroad and give the impression that the country has returned to normal. This has been capped by the announcement that the 2012 Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, cancelled last year, will go ahead in April.
Cyber attacks
Cyber attacks in the form of distributed denials of service (DDoS) are widespread. Last year saw the rise of groups of hacker such as Anonymous, which were behind cyber attacks on the Tunisian, Egyptian and Syrian governments' websites.
Governments are often behind attempts to hack news websites or independent sites. Even Eritrea was hit. Opposition sites were blocked just as the United Nations was approving sanctions against the country. Sri Lankan sites were also victims of cyber attacks. On the eve of the parliamentary election in Russia, a series of coordinated cyber attacks and arrests of journalists and bloggers took place with the aim of stifling political discussion, which can only take place freely via the Internet.
During the demonstrations in Belarus, the Internet service provider BelTelecom redirected web users trying to connect to the Vkontakte social network to sites containing malicious software.
Besides a regular army, every country now has a cyber army, which may or may not be official. The reputation of the Chinese cyber police is well established and the Syrian and Iranian cyber armies also play a major role.
Getting rid of awkward witnesses
2011 was the deadliest year for netizens, its violence unmatched in the time that dissidents and human rights campaigners have been making widespread use of the Web. Several were killed in Bahrain, Mexico, India and Syria. Dozens of others are probably still to be identified and there will undoubtedly be still more to add to the toll, particularly in Syria.
In Mexico, drug cartels hit social network users directly. Three netizens and one journalist were shot dead in cold blood. The headless body of a Mexican Internet activist was found in Nuevo Laredo on 9 November. The victim, nicknamed "Rascatripas" (Belly-Scratcher), moderated the website "Nuevo Laredo en Vivo" which exposed organized crime. A message left beside the body proclaimed: "This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn't report things on social networks."
On 9 April 2011, the netizen Zakariya Rashid Hassan died in custody in Bahrain, a week after he was arrested and charged with inciting hatred, disseminating false news, promoting sectarianism and calling for the overthrow of the government on online forums.
At least seven media workers had already been killed as a result of their work in Syria by the end of February this year. Netizens who also paid with their lives included Basil Al-Sayed, Ferzat Jarban and Soleiman Saleh Abazaid.
Raids and roundups
As netizen numbers grow, more and more of them are at risk. At least 199 cases of arrests of netizens were recorded in 2011, a 31-percent increase compared with the previous year. Today, at least 120 netizens are in prison because of their activities. China, followed by Vietnam and Iran, has the largest number of netizens in prison again this year.
On 16 February this year, a raid was carried out at the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, similarly in Turkmenistan after an explosion at an arms depot near Abadan killed many civilians. Iran and Vietnam have also used similar methods. Vietnam has attacked Catholic networks and China regularly arrests netizens and dissidents to intimidate their followers. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo remains behind bars.
Egypt jailed its first political prisoner of the post-Mubarak era, the blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad who was convicted for criticizing the armed forces.
House arrests and "fake releases" abound. China has made this a speciality, as the blogger Hu Jia and cyber-dissident Hada, who campaigns for the rights of the Mongol people, discovered. Vietnam has also used this practice.
Inhuman treatment, pressure and unfair tactics
Many Syrian and Bahraini netizens have been tortured in custody. Iranian authorities in particular favour extracting confessions from dissidents then broadcasting them on television. In Egypt bloggers have reported being subjected to degrading treatment during questioning by security forces.
The "UAE five", a group of netizens and activists accused of online subversion and jailed in the United Arab Emirates, were accused of being traitors, as were their families.
In Bahrain, the noted dissident Nabeel Rajab is regularly smeared in the media as well as being subjected to physically assault.
In Cuba, a pitched battle is in progress between pro-government bloggers and their "alternative" counterparts who criticize the government. The latter, including the blogger Yoani Sanchez, have been the target of a smear campaign in the state-run media and on foreign propaganda sites.
Chains of support
Bonds have been created between blogospheres and citizens throughout the world have started relaying calls for solidarity, as well as startling images and shocking stories. Global Voices, the international network of bloggers and citizen journalists, has played an important role in the dialogue between online communities and NGOs that campaign for freedom of expression.
In order to combat increasingly competent censors, self-styled "hacktivists" have been giving technical assistance to vulnerable netizens to help them share information in the face of pervasive censorship. The campaigns on behalf of the Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad and Syria's Razan Ghazzawi have transcended international borders. The hashtag #OpSyria, started by Telecomix – a decentralised network of net activists committed to freedom of expression – has allowed Syrians to broadcast videos of the crackdown.
Last year also saw the development of tools to bypass censorship and blocking of Web access, such as "Internet in a suitcase" and FreedomBox. Cyber freedom activists are working flat-out to respond to increasingly effective censorship tools.
Diplomats enter the picture
Freedom of expression on the Internet is no longer the sole preserve of dissidents, geeks and censors. Diplomats have followed in their wake. Statements and joint texts issued by international organizations and coalitions of countries on Internet freedom have multiplied, from the report by Frank La Rue, the UN special rapporteur for the promotion and protection of freedom of opinion and expression, who last June acknowledged Internet access as a basic right, to the ruling by the European Court of Justice condemning Internet filtering and its adverse effects on freedom of expression.
At a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in late February, the high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, deplored restrictions on the Internet and the arrests of bloggers in some countries. She declared: "The Internet has transformed human rights movements. States can no longer exercise control based on the notion of monopoly over information."
The U.S. secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to approve a statement guaranteeing online freedoms, believing "rights exercised in cyberspace deserve as much protection as those exercised in real space".
For their part, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan defended the principle of a code of good conduct for the Internet, a concept that in reality is aimed as legitimizing censorship.
Democracies have a poor record
Some democratic countries are far from blameless. The free flow of news and information online often loses out to internal security, the war on terrorism and cyber crime, and even the protection of intellectual property.
Monitoring of the Internet has been stepped up in India since the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. Russia habitually describes sites that do no more than criticize the Kremlin as "extremist" to justify closing them down. Canada has introduced repressive Internet legislation under the label of the fight against paedophilia.
The United Kingdom, whose Digital Rights Bill aimed at protecting copyright has been singled out by U.N. Commissioner La Rue, went through a difficult period during the riots last August. In a worrying development, the Canadian company Research In Motion, manufacturers of the Blackberry, made the personal details of some users available to the police without a prior court order.
Despite international condemnation and the fact that its laws are outdated, France still applies the Loppsi Internet security law, which provides for official filtering of the Web, and the Hadopi law, which allows for Web access to be cut off to prevent illegal downloading of copyright content, despite several unsuccessful cases. Decrees ordering the application of other laws show that the usual reaction of the authorities is to impose filtering. Australia has yet to scrap its national filtering system, despite waning support and the fact that the type of content it is designed to cover may change.
Speeches by U.S. officials on the importance of the fight against online censorship and their financial support for anti-censorship tools is belied by the treatment of WikiLeaks (see the Reporters Without Borders report on the United States and the Internet). Using Visa and MasterCard to cut off its access to funds has hampered the site's operations. Bradley Manning, suspected of being one of WikiLeaks' informers, has been detained for several months in dreadful conditions. The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is the subject of a "secret indictment" which Reporters Without Borders urges the U.S. authorities to clarify.
Response of Internet users and netizens of the "free world"
Internet users in Western countries cut their teeth with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Many of them took to the streets to protest against the repressive U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), which sacrificed Internet freedom for the sake of copyright protection. The operation Stop SOPA and the 24-hour blackout observed by many websites, including Wikipedia, mobilised Web users throughout the world who were potentially affected by these bills to an unprecedented extent.
The campaign took off again with a new wave of protest against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which up till then had left most people indifferent despite campaigns by the NGOs La Quadrature du Net and Reporters Without Borders. Netizens from all sides understood that these bills could affect on their day-to-day activities.
Eastern Europe spearheaded the campaign. Several governments held off ratification. Resistance to ACTA is stronger than ever and the treaty may not see the light of day. Vigilance must be maintained. The next target for Internet activists could be the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED), proposed by the European Union to clamp down on infringements of intellectual property law, which could potentially lead to large-scale filtering of the Internet. Another blow for Web neutrality.
Internet sovereignty and fragmentation of the Web
Internet sovereignty is an idea that is gaining ground in the minds of national leaders, whether repressive or not. Others have followed the example of the national platform created in Burma in 2010. Several times in 2011, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, true to his nationalist policies, announced the creation of a national Web, a "clean" version of the Internet with its own search engine and messaging service. This may mean two different types of access, one for the authorities and another for the rest of the population, similar to the way the Internet is now structured in Burma. Belarus requires commercial companies to register the websites they have set up in the country. This does not affect news and information sites for the time being.
Some countries such as North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Cuba, and also Iran, censor Internet access so effectively that they restrict their populations to local intranets that bear no resemblance to the World Wide Web. The decision by Twitter among others to apply location-specific censorship confirms the tendency to fall back on national Webs.
In 2011, the fragmentation of the Internet gathered pace. Web users were granted varying access depending on where they were connected. This is contrary to the original concept of the founders of the Web. Digital segregation is spreading. Solidarity between defenders of a free Internet, accessible to all, is more than ever needed for the information to continue to flow.The 2012 list of the Enemies of the Internet
Bahrain and Belarus move from "under surveillance" to "Enemies". Libya and Venezuela had been dropped from the list of countries "under surveillance" while India and Kazakhstan have been added to it.
Bahrain and Belarus, new Enemies of the Internet
Two countries, Bahrain and Belarus, have been moved from the "under surveillance" category to the "Enemies of the Internet" list, joining the ranks of the countries that restrict Internet freedom the most: Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. They combine often drastic content filtering with access restrictions, tracking of cyber-dissidents and online propaganda. Iran and China, in particular, reinforced their technical capacity in 2011 and China stepped up pressure on privately-owned Internet companies in order to secure their collaboration.
Iran has announced the launch of a national Internet. Iran and Vietnam have both launched a new wave of arrests, while the bloody crackdown on protests in Syria is hitting netizens hard and is enabling the regime to perfect its mastery of online surveillance with Iran's help. Turkmenistan has fought its first battle in the war over Information 2.0 while North Korea, which is developing its online presence for propaganda purposes, is confronted with an increase in smuggling of banned communications equipment across the Chinese border. In Cuba, bloggers supportive of the government and those critical of the regime argue online.
Saudi Arabia has continued its relentless censorship and suppressed coverage of a provincialuprising. Uzbekistan took measures to prevent Uznet from becoming a forum for discussing the Arab springs. There is one light of hope: the situation is improving in Burma, where the military have permitted the release of journalists and bloggers and the unblocking of news websites, but the legislative and technical tools for controlling and monitoring the Internet have yet to be dismantled.
Bahrain offers an example of an effective news blackout based on a remarkable array of repressive measures: keeping the international media away, harassing human rights activists, arresting bloggers and netizens (one of whom died in detention), smearing and prosecuting free speech activists, and disrupting communications, especially during the major demonstrations.
In Belarus, President Lukashenko's regime has increased his grip on the Web as the country sinks further into political isolation and economic stagnation. The Internet, a space used for circulating information and mobilizing protests, has been hit hard as the authorities have reacted to "revolution via the social media." The list of blocked websites has grown longer and the Internet was partially blocked during the "silent protests." Some Belarusian Internet users and bloggers have been arrested while others have been invited to "preventive conversations" with the police in a bid to get them to stop demonstrating or covering demonstrations. The government has used Twitter to send messages that are meant to intimidate demonstrators, and the main ISP has diverted those trying to access the online social network Vkontakte to sites containing malware. And Law No. 317-3, which took effect on 6 January 2012, reinforced Internet surveillance and control measures.
Movement in "countries under surveillance" list
The countries "under surveillance" list still includes Australia, whose government clings to a dangerous content filtering system; Egypt, where the new regime has resumed old practices and has directly targeted the most outspoken bloggers; Eritrea, a police state that keeps its citizens away from the Internet and is alarmed by its diaspora's new-found militancy online and on the streets of foreign cities; France, which continues its "three-strikes" policy on illégal downloading, with suspension of Internet access, and wher administrative filtering is introduced by an internal security law and appears with increasing frequency in decrees implementing laws; and Malaysia, which continues to harass bloggers (who have more credibility that the traditional media) in the run-up to general elections.
The "under surveillance" list also includes Russia, which has used cyber-attacks and has arrested bloggers and netizens to prevent a real online political debate; South Korea, which is stepping up censorship of propaganda from its northern neighbour and keeps an array of repressive laws; Sri Lanka, where online media and journalists continue to be blocked and physically attacked; Thailand, where the new government sends bloggers to prison and is reinforcing content filtering in the name of cracking down on lèse-majesté; Tunisia, where freedom of expression is still fragile and content filtering could be reimposed; Turkey, where thousands of websites are still inaccessible, alarming filtering initiatives have been taken and netizens and online journalists continue to be prosecuted; and the United Arab Emirates, where surveillance has been reinforced preventively in response to the Arab Spring.
Venezuela and Libya no longer under surveillance
In Libya, many challenges remain but the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime has ended an era of censorship. Before his removal and death, Col. Gaddafi had tried to impose a news blackout by cutting access to the Internet.
In Venezuela, access to the Internet continues to be unrestricted. The level of self-censorship is hard to evaluate but the adoption in 2011 of legislation that could potentially limit Internet freedom has yet to have any damaging effect in practice. Reporters Without Borders will nonetheless remain vigilant as relations between the government and critical media are tense.
India and Kazakhstan, new additions to the "under surveillance" category
Since the Mumbai bombings of 2008, the Indian authorities have stepped up Internet surveillance and pressure on technical service providers, while publicly rejecting accusations of censorship. The national security policy of the world's biggest democracy is undermining freedom of expression and the protection of Internet users' personal data.
Kazakhstan, which likes to think of itself as a regional model after holding the rotating presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010, nonetheless seems to be turning its back on all its fine promises in order to take the road of cyber-censorship. An unprecedented oil workers strike, a major riot, a strange wave of bombings and the president's ailing health all helped to increase government tension in 2011 and led to greater control of information, especially online information: blocking of news websites, cutting of communications around the city of Zhanaozen during the riot, and new, repressive Internet regulations.
Thailand and Burma may be about to change places
If Thailand continues down the slope of content filtering and jailing netizens on lèse-majesté charges, it could soon join the club of the world's most repressive countries as regards the Internet.
Burma could soon leave the Enemies of the Internet list if the country takes the necessary measures. It has clearly embarked on a promising period of reforms, which has included the release of journalists and bloggers and the restoration of access to blocked websites. It must now go further by abandoning censorship altogether, releasing the journalists and bloggers still held, dismantling the surveillance apparatus that was built on the national Internet platform, and repealing the Electronic Act.
Other countries to watch
Other countries have jailed netizens or established a form of Internet censorship. Even if they are not on these lists, Reporters Without Borders will continue to closely monitor online freedom of information in countries such as Azerbaijan, Morocco and Tajikistan, to name just a few.
At the time of writing, Pakistan has invited private-sector companies to bid for the creation of a national Internet filtering and blocking system. Reporters Without Borders has asked the authorities to abandon this project, which would result in the creation of an Electronic Great Wall. If they go ahead, Pakistan could be added to the Enemies of the Internet in 2013.
http://en.rsf.org/beset-by-online-surveillance-and-12-03-2012,42061.html
The Pot-Banging Protest of January 2012 / Jorge Luis García Pérez Antunez
The Pot-Banging Protest of January 2012 / Jorge Luis García Pérez AntunezAntunez, Translator: Unstated
In January, the first month of 2012, the Cuban internal resistance was the scene of two major events which, for their impact and significance, are milestones and mark the Cuban nation. On January 19, 2012 the death of political prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza was announced, a young Christian Baptist who had spent more than fifty days dying on hunger strike, in which he demanded fair and transparent criminal proceedings, with promise of an adequate his defense.
Villar Mendoza had been arrested, along with other members of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, when they carried out a resounding and peaceful protest in Santiago municipality of Boatswain. The political police, true to their cruel and false nature, planned a future attempt to prosecute him for alleged crimes of which he had already been legally exonerated, and Wilman Villar met his cruel death after a painful agony where the silence, indifference, complicity and torture put paid to his young, dignified existence.
But days later his brothers in the internal resistance from one end of the country to the other, united in an unprecedented move. In hundreds and hundreds of Cuban homes, thousands and thousands of compatriots joined in a national cacerolazo — a pounding on pots and pans — to condemn the crime and the crude smear campaign launched by a cowardly government's press releases against the memory of this young man who had much more courage than his executioners, to meet the challenges from a position of strength, against those who led him to prison unjustly.
The regime and its enforcers of its flamboyant military deployment, arrests, and persecutions could do nothing to avoid the pot-banging, women, adolescents and almost children, men and women and all the people of the village who do not belong to the opposition as such, joined the cacerolazo. The cacerolazo this Jan. 24, Day of Resistance, its connotation and national and international impact tells us how much progress has been made by Cuba's opposition, far-reaching in will and consensus, as is embodied in the spirit of unity in action and we announced that this could represent the year that has just begun in the fight for the freedom of the motherland. These are the facts, the rest is up to us.
January 26 2012
Cuban activists urge the pope to reconsider his planned visit
Posted on Friday, 03.02.12
Cuban activists urge the pope to reconsider his planned visit
The activists, including Martha Beatriz Roque, sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI stating that his planned visit will lead to further repression.By Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Nearly 750 Cuban activists have signed a letter to Pope Benedict XVI warning that his planned visit to Cuba will "send a message to the oppressors that they can continue" to abuse Catholic opponents, dissidents reported Thursday.
"We would be very happy to receive you in our country, if the message of faith, love and hope that you could bring us also would serve to halt the repression against those who want to go to church," the letter said.
It did not directly urge the pontiff to cancel his planned March 26-28 visit to Havana and Santiago de Cuba, but added, "May the Holy Trinity illuminate your mind so that you can make a correct decision."
The letter was the latest word from those Cuban dissidents who are concerned that the pontiff's visit will only legitimize Raúl Castro's government and do little or nothing to improve human rights on the communist-ruled island.
A column by popular blogger Yoani Sánchez published Thursday in Spain's El País newspaper noted that while Cubans enthusiastically welcomed Pope John Paul II's visit in 1998, today "a dose of national cynicism conspires against any enthusiasm."
Havana dissident Martha Beatriz Roque said the idea for the letter popped up several weeks ago among activists, some Catholic and some not, from various groups who know each other and talk regularly about island issues.
"This does not come from any specific group, but rather from many people who are in contact with each other, and then each group sought the signatures in the provinces," Roque told El Nuevo Herald by telephone from Havana.
Roque emailed the letter to contacts abroad, along with the list of 749 names of people who signed it and their respective Cuban identity card numbers.
Among the signers were some of Cuba's best-known dissidents, such as Roque, Guillermo Fariñas, Sara Martha Fonseca, Vladimiro Roca, Jorge Luis "Antunez" García Pérez and his wife, Iris Tamara Perez Aguilar.
Other dissidents have cautiously welcomed the papal visit as a ray of hope for the Cuban people and the Catholic church. Not signing the letter were Catholic activists Oswaldo Payá and Dagoberto Valdés, Ladies in White leader Bertha Soler and her husband, former political prisoner Angel Moya, and dissident Oscar Elias Biscet.
Roque said that she has been asking for an interview with the Vatican's diplomatic envoy in Havana, Msgr. Bruno Musaro, for the past month to hand over the letter but has received no reply.
The letter argued that since abuses against Catholics only increased after the papal visit was announced, Benedict's presence in Cuba "would be like sending a message to the oppressors that they can continue to do whatever they want, that the church will allow it."
It cited three cases in which government-organized mobs harassed or threatened dissidents who had gathered in churches, including one Feb. 19 in which the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba had to intervene to protect 14 Ladies in White surrounded at the Our Lady of Charity shrine in El Cobre.
"One should add that on top of all that, some of the faithful are visited by the political police between Friday and Saturday of each week, to be warned that they will not be allowed to attend mass — and indeed they are arrested on Sunday," the letter added.
It also noted that the government alleges the dissidents go to church only "to provoke and engage in politicking" and added that "some non-official people" have repeated that line. "May God not hold that against them," it added.
The letter did not identify them, but dissidents have complained in the past that some church officials have warned they cannot use churches as safe havens.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/02/2670306/cuban-activists-urge-the-pope.htm
Cuban police briefly arrested more than 100 dissidents over the weekend
Posted on Tuesday, 02.28.12
Cuban police briefly arrested more than 100 dissidents over the weekend
One human rights activist described 'a state of paranoia' as at least 100 dissidents were arrested ahead of key anniversaries.By Juan O. Tamayojtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
Police briefly arrested more than 100 Cuban dissidents over the weekend in a multi-pronged campaign to prevent public demonstrations marking the anniversaries of the deaths of five Castro opponents, activists reported Monday.
Former political prisoner Angel Moya and nine other government opponents also were detained and there was no word on their whereabouts as of late Monday, said his wife, Bertha Soler, leader of the dissident group Ladies in White.
"There's a kind of state of paranoia" in which security agents are sweeping up anyone they consider a threat, said Havana human rights activist Elizardo Sánchez Santa Cruz, who put the number of confirmed weekend arrests at more than 100.
Most were freed hours or days later, not in time to join protests marking the Feb. 23, 2010 death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo after a lengthy hunger strike, or the deaths of four South Florida men whose Brothers to the Rescue airplanes were shot down by Cuban fighter jets on Feb. 24, 1996.
One crackdown that elicited surprise was that against the group Ladies in White in Havana, which has been largely left alone during the past two years, when they attended Sunday mass at the Santa Rita church and then marched around the neighborhood.
But police and pro-government mobs have not allowed the women to protest any other way, and swiftly arrested 20 of them when they appeared to be taking their march outside their usual boundaries, Soler told El Nuevo Herald.
"We walked to our usual bus stop and about 15 got on a bus that filled up, so the rest of us started walking to another bus stop, and all of a sudden we were surrounded by police cars, motorcycles, buses, everything," she said.
She said that she and 19 other Ladies in White members then were shoved into an empty bus and driven away. They were held on the bus for more than four hours, Soler said.
Dissidents said that police in other parts of the island have tried to avert protests by beating activists and surrounding their homes.
Police on Saturday detained three well known government critics — musician Gorki Aguila, graffiti artist Danilo "El Sexto" Maldonado and singer Ismael de Diego — before a planned concert at a park. They were freed Sunday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/28/2664463/cuban-police-briefly-arrested.html
Recent Comments