Fidel Castro, Internet News Junkie

pickens writes "The LA Times reports that 84-year-old Cuban ex-President Fidel Castro consumes 200 to 300 news items a day on the World Wide Web. In a recent interview he called Web communication 'the most powerful weapon that has existed' and extolled its power to break a stranglehold on the media by 'the empire' and 'ambitious private groups that have abused it' adding that the Internet 'has put an end to secrets.... We are seeing a high level of investigative journalism, as the New York Times calls it, that is within reach of the whole world.' Well, not the whole world. Cuba has the lowest level of Internet penetration in the Western Hemisphere (lower than Haiti), plus severe government restrictions and censorship affecting those who do have access. In addition Cuban law bans using the Internet to spread information that is against what the government considers to be the social interest, norms of good behavior, the integrity of the people or national security."

Comments

Re:There are few things more annoying

[Dr_Barnowl]

The worst thing about Hershey's is the texture. The flavour is pretty uninspiring too.

I mean, FFS, Americans go nuts when they visit Britain and taste Dairy Milk... it's only 22% cocoa solids. It's our basic level cheapie mass-produced chocolate. But it's sooo much better than Hershey's.

Wasn't Hershey's formulated so that it wouldn't spoil in WWII combat zones? It would explain a lot if the first priority was durability....

Re:There are few things more annoying

[ArcherB]

You know, it's of course impossible that US government might want to paint a worse picture of their enemies than what they actually are! It's not even only Cuba.. It's China, Russia, North Korea, whatever country with different views, culture and society.

Seriously? I'll tell you what. As soon as China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and any other country that the US wants to make look evil allows relatively unfettered access to a country and its population, I'll read the report and consider it to be the truth. Until then, I only have the stories from those starving individuals who risk their lives to escape such regimes.

I'm sorry, how is bringing up that none of these countries have a free press "Troll"? Without a free press, the government is free to be as oppressive as they like. You may not have a free society without a free press.

So, will the mod that thinks free press is "troll" please speak up.

Thank you.

Re:There are few things more annoying

[Antisyzygy]

You realize there are chocolate places in the US that sell European and other gourmet chocolates (even making their own from cocoa) including traditional European drinking chocolate? You must get the dregs of American society over there. http://www.theoriginalchocolatebar.com/