Internet: “There´s no political obstacle”
A reporter´s notebook
Internet: “There´s no political obstacle”
By Manuel Alberto Ramy
ramymanuel@yahoo.com
8 February 2011.
As I finished my previous blog, “A step towards calculated openings?”, I wrote that a full welcome to Internet “ will not happen tomorrow morning, but it will happen.” Yesterday, during a press conference inaugurating the Fair and Congress “Informatics 2011”, Jorge Luis Perdomo, Vice Minister of Communications and Informatics, affirmed that “there´s no political obstacle” for all social actors to get an internet access.
There are two impediments, though: one, pointed out by the Vice Minister himself, is technical and related to a lack of infrastructure which would call for hard currency investments; I add a second one of juridical nature because the country is in need of legislation on the use of telecommunications, counting only with a number of regulations.
Those inconveniences notwithstanding and according to what Vice Minister Perdomo has declared, there is a will to open the net to the whole of the population, after implementing certain regulations similar perhaps to those already existing in other countries. In my view, it´s worth insisting, communications are a citizen´s right.
Readings of a recent video
There is a video circulating in the web (www.vimeo.com/19402730) in which an alleged officer of Cuban counterintelligence services (it´s not that I´d find it amazing if he really were one) shows to a group of the military, a series of situations derived from the employment of Internet as being risky for the country´s stability. A few colleagues and press agencies have interpreted such video as a long goodbye to a democratic cyberspace in Cuba. Why don´t I share this conclusion?
1. We should not forget that risk analysis has also to take benefits and rights into consideration. It´s a question of balance, and one which governments usually have to pay attention to when dealing with a variety of issues.
2. I agree with those who think that the video was accidentally-on purpose leaked by Cuban authorities, anticipating a warm reception by the media and bloggers, some of them die-hard enemies of the Cuban system, who would swiftly and free of charge widespread it. As a matter of fact, that´s what´s happening.
3. Do you remember Alan Gross, the American contractor facing a 20 years sentence for the distribution of, among other equipments, cell phones sophisticated enough to directly connect to satellites. As in several other countries, that kind of equipment is verboten in Cuba, and in order to employ them one must have an official permit. I´d rather link the video propagation with an attempt to prepare the international arena before Mr. Gross faces a verdict.
4. The lecturer in the video affirms that “There´s nothing wrong with being a blogger…They [the enemies of the Cuban government] have their bloggers and we have our own. Let´s fight and find out who is the strongest one”. Therefore, if the battle is settled for the cyberspace, no closing of it is suggested. Some will surely think that access will be exclusive. Just one fact: till today – the video dates back to June 8 2010- those bloggers who oppose the Cuban government have continued to publish their pieces by placing them from hotel lobbies in the island. Access has not been blocked. To categorically discuss these matters, we shall have to wait for the legislation which, presumably this year, the National Assembly will approve. I hope it will do it in the sense of favoring the right of every citizen to navigate.
Just as this note could be seen in the trail of the previous one I quoted above, the reader should not be surprised if we go on reflecting on this issue and certain related aspects.
