Cuba cutting Internet access

Cuba is further limiting access to the World Wide Web for its citizens, in what many believe is an effort to rein in a small but increasingly popular group of bloggers who are critical of the government Click here for full story

CUBA: Emerging community of bloggers?

Blogging has finally hit Cuba, despite the challenge of gaining access to the Internet and the limited number of home computers on the island, and the emergence of a Cuban community of bloggers may soon be more than just wishful thinking. Click here for full story

Blogger contest reflects 'vibrant' blogosphere in Cuba

Cuban bloggers sent Twitter messages to announce the winners of their first-ever contest -- two milestones in a country where a report Thursday said a ``vibrant'' blogosphere is emerging despite ``vast legal and technical obstacles.''

``We're pretty happy to have achieved all this,'' said a clearly ecstatic Reynaldo Escobar, a blogger and contest judge. ``None of this, none of it, has ever been done in Cuba.''

Both the tweets and contest prizes were landmarks for Cuban bloggers, described in a report by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) as ``mainly young adults . . . [who] have opened a new space for free expression in Cuba, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in Cuba's closed system.''

Cuba fighting blogs with blogs

Cuba is counter-attacking its cyber-foes with government backers calling them mercenaries and CIA agents, but sometimes admitting it's difficult to fight Internet critics like well-known blogger Yoani Sánchez.

``There must be a defense, but how?'' wrote one government supporter on Progreso-Weekly.com ``If you [answer] them, you validate them. If you ignore them, you confirm them. If they are repressed, they are empowered. And if they are not repressed, they are also empowered.''

The answer seems to be to counter-attack. Half-a-dozen posts referring to a ``media war'' and the need to ``man the trenches'' in ``defense of the revolution'' have popped up on pro-government blog sites in the past three weeks.

Christian Science Monitor publishes 4 stories on Cuba

The Christian Science Monitor recently published a series of stories on Cuba's disgruntled youth, women dissidents, blogger Yoani Sánchez and the independent library movement.

Through his biting lyrics, Bian Rodríguez vents the anger he says other young Cubans also feel at being trapped in a system that doesn't represent them, won't allow them to speak freely, and worst of all stifles their ability to get ahead. Click here for full story

Only a handful of Cuban dissidents are willing to take on the risk of fighting for basic freedoms. While these spirited few many of whom are now women don't wield much clout, they insist that more people are quietly asking them how to get involved. Click here for full story