Cuban blogger censored

24 Mar 2008 | 21:31 GMT

By Sylvie Barak

Havana blues

ON MONDAY, Cuban authorities apparently blocked all Cuban access to one of the country's most popular blogs written by Yoani Sanchez.

Sanchez told Reuters in a telephone interview that her critical " Generacion Y" blog, which received 1.2 million hits in February alone, was made unavailable to Cubans trying to access it. Any Cuban resident trying to access the blog, is now presented with an error message instead. 32-year-old Sanchez and her 60-year-old husband, Reinaldo Escobar, had set up the controversial Consenso desde Cuba Web site, on which her blog was hosted, on a web server in Germany. The blog contained harsh criticism of the Cuban government and numerous descriptions of the daily hardships suffered by the Cuban people.

Unlike many other Cubans critical of their regime, Sanchez and Escobar have always used their own names and photos, despite the potentially serious consequences of such actions in a country which strictly controls the media.

Her blog recently slammed new President, Raul Castro, brother of the notorious Fidel Castro, for not taking greater steps towards real change in the poverty-stricken country (see previous Inq article: Cuba allows sale of computers, DVDs, rice cookers and toasters).

Sanchez claims that she has discovered ways of getting around the Cuban censors and promised to continue posting her blog saying, "there is no censorship that can stop people who are determined to access the Internet". µ

L'inqs