Day Seventy: accessing information in Cuba

A really interesting article from the BBC today - part of their 'Free to Speak' series, launched to celebrate 75 years of the BBC World Service. (The stories in the series are really worth a read, incidentally.) It also chimes with the article posted yesterday on open access university lectures - which has stimulated a lot of RTBH interest! Thanks very much for all your comments and emails on that - and with the post on Middle Eastern media outlets (Day Sixty-Six).

So, to today's story. It documents the ingenious efforts of Cubans to gain access to the internet and, through it, to knowledge and opinions beyond Cuba's borders. Some Cubans now have internet access at work, but hooking up at home is not possible - though some people are paying to use foreigners' internet access for a set time per month, so desperate are they to surf. In addition, the Cuban government appears to be loosening restrictions on access to information, just a bit. Serving president Raul Castro has apparently called on the Cuban press to be more critical, and earlier this month the government said it would sign two UN human rights accords (which should enshrine press freedom, at least on paper).

So not quite 'good news' yet, then - but cause for hope? Certainly.