In a list compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Cuba is ranked as the 10th most censored country in the world, with Eritrea being at the top of the list. Cuba has a tendency to “ground” journalists, preventing them from leaving the country. A recent example of this is Maykel Gonzalez, an LGBTQ activist and director of the Tremenda Nota website. He was supposed to fly out to Madrid on Monday night, but found himself on a list of grounded reporters.
With the rise of the internet, it’s getting harder and harder to truly censor the population of first-world nations. One social media post, if posted at the right time by the right person, can get hundreds or thousands of views in a few seconds. And if those hundreds or thousands of people manage to grab a screenshot of the post before it’s deleted, that screenshot can be spread worldwide and suddenly, your censored post isn’t so censored anymore.
Censorship is a hotly debated subject, especially in America. But the truth of the matter is, one can’t say censorship is inherently good or bad. If the government of your country is one that the people aren’t too pleased with, or is one that commits human rights violations, preventing people from communicating the problem is one of the most important things to do. Deleting opponents’ social media pages, preventing oppositional journalists or activists from leaving the country, regulating the newspaper, all of these are good ways to prevent communication and avoid a bigger power taking an interest in how you treat your citizens.
On the other end of this, if your government is abusing its citizens, you want to do as much as you possibly can to get other people talking about and protesting your issue. The more people that know, the more that will push for change, and the more that push for change, the harder it is for the government to ignore or deny you.
In Cuba, the government isn’t admitting any discrimination or political agenda behind their travel bans. They only say they have to examine it “case by case”, and there’s no underlying common factors. Everyone knows this is a lie, but nobody outside of Cuba really cares. It’s not in our national interest to care about the freedom of journalists in Cuba.