exactly the same
freedom of expression
have taken place.
people were talking about.
Hello Eliane, tell me about...
Well, besides your life in Cuba
and everything
how do you see and what problems do you have
in the coverage you do for Global Voices
on the island?
I write for Global Voices since 2010
when the regional editor in Spanish
asked me if i wanted to collaborate
and i started to write
very sad news for us:
the fall of a plane
in a province called Sacti Spiritus.
From that moment on
i tried to reconstruct
the voices of what was being said
by the bloggers in the island the people who had internet
people still with limited means
and slow conection.
Currently, the main problem i have
for the coverage with Global Voices
is trying to give voice to the blogosphere
and spaces in the Internet
but many times things happen in Cuba
and it takes time to get to the Internet
especially because of this limitation with technology
or with the usage of Internet.
Then we asked ourselves during the summit
if we waited and lost a week
or we tried to go on with the events
as if it was a live coverage,
without having yet a reflection of the Social Media.
It is a debate that maybe
doesn't affect much to other countries
but for us in Cuba,
it belongs to our day-to-day.
We also try to make the posts as comprehensive as possible.
Cuba is politically controversial
and there are distant spaces in the blogosphere
opposed to each other.
It is an everyday challange
trying that the coverage in Cuba
is as neutral as possible
although i personally think
it is something difficult to achieve.
At least we try it is as balanced and honest as possible.
From all the articles you have written
which reactions have you harvested
to say it somehow
thanks to comments
from the website or other means?
Well, almost all the articles
get very polemic comments
but we always try to answer them.
The most interesting thing it's happened
is all the people who try to contact me
by email
to learn more about Cuba
from what i write in Global Voices.
And also from the series i wrote
about the Wikileaks cables, i mean,
what the cables said about Cuba.
It generated many comments and replicas
within the official media.
They started to copy the post
in the mainstream media
for trying an analysis in 3 posts
that i wrote essentially
about the topics
A quantitative analysys at the beginning.
Then explaining the topics, the postures
about the topics
and it was very interesting
because it was published
exclusively for Global Voices
and suddenly other media started to publish it.
Translations are also interesting.
It is not as exciting and new to me
to see the posts translated into English.
But to enter one day and see the posts
in Magyar or Aymara
or languages not very known in the world
is exremely good because you know
people there can read about Cuba
or at least have the possibility
of having those stories about Cuba.
You take part in the Cuban blogosphere
How is the relationship with your parents?
To take part in the cuban blogosphere
is something complicated and complex.
A blogosphere is in constant growth.
Cuba has almost 600 blogs nowadays.
It can seem not much,
but for a country with just a 14%
of Internet penetration, it's a lot,
because some people are dedicating
their free time and the connection from their jobs,
because they hardly ever have at home,
to tell something about reality in Cuba.
Suddenly being immersed in this dynamics
in 2009 when i created my blog it was something
very solitary, there were not many people
not many bloggers
and we barely talked to each other.
But in 2012 some national in-person meetings
of bloggers in Cuba
There have been citizen actions
such us the cleaning of the river Almendares
completely announced by the social network
that gathered people from inside and outside Cuba.
There have been computer teaching
programs related to technology
for citizens with less knowledge.
It starts to be a big community
where it is still difficult to reach a consensus
but where one can create interesting debate areas,
generate productive dialogues
where we are learning a little
to be more comprehensive,
to respect the voice of others,
to understand every blog is an unique individual experience
that doesn't have to fit with everybody.
That teaches us to respect others,
to understand the terms
or the respect to differences thanks to the Internet.
In Cuba, i think there is only the media of the government,
correct me if i am wrong.
We have the official media, which are state-owned.
Cuban official media belong to the State.
The Workers Central Union of Cuba, for example,
has its own media; the Communist Party,
Cuba's Young Communist Union also has its own media...
As for university students,
they have the Alma Mater magazine,
and almost every sector is represented,
Although the most recognised media are state-owned
the relationship with the blogosphere with the state-owned media
is very interesting,
even if at the beginning
they were not very listened or read
because we were very few.
Nowadays we are fairly read and quoted,
Cuban bloggers are interwied in press
and there are also many topics
that concern the citizens
and then are taken by the traditional journalism.
They fulfil deeper researches, investigations,
and then it starts to exist a dialogue
between bloggers and traditional journalists.
I don't think it is a relationship of deep aversion
or discredit to bloggers
for the fact of being bloggers.
If there is a discredit to bloggers
it is for certain political tendencies
but on the basis of political documents,
not for being a blogger
or using new technologies to tell your reality,
as it can happen in other countries
where not having a journalism degree
can invalidate a citizen.
I don't think it is the case of Cuba, yet.
At least not for the moment.
Thank you, Elaine.