Connected: an internet cafe in Havana
Marc Frank, Financial Times: Cuba flirts with free speech
Cuba is using the internet to experiment with toning down its political censorship in a sign that a glimmer of glasnost has arrived on the Communist-run Caribbean island.
Havana’s decision to open up on the once-taboo subjects of the electoral system and civil society — by allowing Cubans to question policy in two online forums — is reminiscent of the early days of free speech in what was the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
For a number of years there has been public discussion over the pros and cons of market-oriented reforms in Cuba, and ample criticism of the bureaucracy. But public criticism has stopped short of questioning the political status quo, aside from a fledgling dissident press, such as the online newspaper 14ymedio.com, run by writer Yoani Sánchez.
WNU Editor: As long as the Castros and their supporters run the country .... sorry .... there is no "free speech" in Cuba .... especially when it comes to questioning their rule. But this is a start ... albeit very late, tightly controlled, and for a small part of the population.
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