A new report details how the communist Castro dictatorship continues to control and censor information as well as intimidate independent journalists, despite allowing internet access on the island. The Cuban regime uses targeted internet cuts on activists and taps the phone lines of independent journalists to maintain control and keep its eyes on the population. For those who thought providing the Cuban people with access to information would bring about the end of the totalitarian regime, the Castro family dictatorship believes otherwise.
Cuba Cuts Internet, Surveils Calls of Journalists, Report Finds
There was a time when activists and journalists who wanted to evade the ever-listening ear of the Cuban government spoke in code or had to meet in European embassies.
The arrival of internet and encrypted messaging services offered some respite.
But as quickly as technological advances made communicating and reporting on Cuba’s government easier, Havana found ways to disrupt or block messages.
Cuba’s independent journalists run a cat-and-mouse game with the government to make sure their phones do not fall into the hands of the authorities. If devices are seized, authorities can mine the digital memories in search of so-called incriminating evidence.
In 2023, at least 210 incidents of internet restrictions were documented by the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press, or ICLEP.
Those restrictions can include access to the internet being cut, arbitrarily blocking access to social media, or hacking the accounts of journalists or the media websites they work for, the ICLEP report found.
Normando Hernandez, founder and director general of Miami-based ICLEP, said intercepting telephone or internet access is a “recurring strategy of the regime to silence independent journalists.”
“It is historically well known that the Cuban state listens and spies on all the conversations it wants to,” Hernandez said. “There is no state of law. Cubans have no way to defend themselves against any breach of their rights.”
VOA contacted the Cuban Embassy in Madrid and the government’s International Press Center in Havana for a response about the findings by ICLEP. No one responded to the requests for comment.
Journalist Henry Constantin says his access to the internet was cut suddenly after La Hora de Cuba, the media site for which he works, began criticizing the Cuban government.
La Hora de Cuba publishes through Facebook and Instagram and is not aligned to the communist government. Its team of around 15 journalists has an audience of between 46,000 and 48,000 on social media.
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