Why have I been blocked from commenting & posting on Indymedia?
Against censorship and personal grudges! | 24.08.2007 11:30
Why have I been blocked from commenting & posting on Indymedia? Is it because I criticized Castro and his regime and someone at indymedia is pro castro? I will be taking this further so Please respond!
All comments and postings I have made have been removed or not shown at all. This is very disturbing and puts the admin in a whole new light. The comments and articles have related to the continous repression of journalists and free speech in Cuba, example shown below.
"In Cuba, they don't just censor you now - they throw you in jail.
President Fidel Castro's police rounded up 26 independent journalists on 18 March, along with more than 50 political dissidents, all for the same reason. At the beginning of April, Cuban courts dispatched each of these journalists to prison for between 14 and 27 years after three days of sham trials. They were punished for allegedly working with the United States "against the independence and territorial integrity of the state," which is a crime under article 91 of the Cuban criminal code and under article 88 on "protecting national independence" (known as the "gag law").
Those targeted had regularly published articles in the foreign press, mostly American, since no independent or privately-owned newspaper or radio or TV station is allowed in Cuba, and had recently dared to start up two underground publications in Cuba itself - "De Cuba" and "Luz Cubana" - which was unprecedented in the 44 years of President Castro's rule.
This new persecution of political opponents and independent journalists, as well as the execution on 11 April of three would-be refugees who hijacked a ferry in a bid to reach Florida, has revolted democrats around the world, even leading the European Union to reconsider its future economic cooperation with Cuba.
Reporters Without Borders invites the public to sign a petition calling for the immediate release of the 26 journalists, who have been thrown in jail to stop them speaking out freely.
The arrests mean Cuba is now the world's biggest prison for journalists and that President Castro has become the "Maximum Leader" of predators of press freedom.
and
Cuba: back to darkness
You should read Cuba's gag law against independent thinkers. It's a return to the darkest ages of Soviet communism or European fascism.
The Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy of Cuba -- better known as Law No. 88 -- was passed by Cuba's rubber-stamp National Assembly , but its full text is only now beginning to circulate among foreign governments and human rights groups.
it's not only directed against Cuba's courageous independent journalists but could be applied to any Cuban who writes a letter abroad complaining about Cuba's problems, or -- God forbid -- suggesting that the Maximum Leader may be less than perfect.
Among its key provisions:
# Article 6: Sets prison terms from three to eight years for those ``who accumulate, reproduce or spread material of subversive character from the government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives, officials, or from any other foreign entity [my italics].''
Target: any publication sent by foreign pro-democracy groups, which often smuggle into the island copies of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, or banned books like George Orwell's Animal Farm and biographies of Martin Luther King and Mohandas K. Ghandi.
# Article 7: Sets penalties from two to five years in prison for ``anyone who . . . collaborates in any way with foreign radio or television stations, newspapers, magazines or other mass media with the purpose of . . . destabilizing the country and destroying the socialist state.'' The penalties rise to three to eight years in prison if such collaboration ``is carried out for profit.''
Target: Cuba's independent journalists, who are not allowed to work in state-controlled media, and sell their reports to foreign media. Many of them have become a more reliable source of news than the Communist Party's daily Granma or the government's news agency Prensa Latina.
# Article 9: Sets prison terms of seven to 15 years to ``anyone who . . . carries out any action aimed at hindering or hurting economic relations of the Cuban state.''
Target: Could be applied against any Cuban who complains to a foreigner about the state of the economy, since such information can lead a potential foreign business partner not to invest on the island.
# Article 11: Sets prison terms of three to eight years to ``anyone who . . . directly or through third parties, receives, distributes or participates in the distribution of financial, material or other resources, from the government of the United States, its agencies, dependencies, representatives, officials or private entities [my italics].''
Target: The paragraph is aimed at prohibiting religious or other nongovernmental organizations from sending money, computers or fax machines to independent groups or individuals in Cuba.
Conclusion: While Law 88 is ostensibly aimed at countering the ``U.S. economic war on Cuba,'' its real target is not the U.S. government -- which has been trying to build bridges to Cuba lately -- but Cuba's independent journalists, independent civic groups on the island, and U.S. and European nongovernmental organizations trying to help them."
I expect this to either not be shown or removed shortly afterwards. I also expect a response from those involved and can be contacted by email as this is not the end of the matter I promise!
"In Cuba, they don't just censor you now - they throw you in jail.
President Fidel Castro's police rounded up 26 independent journalists on 18 March, along with more than 50 political dissidents, all for the same reason. At the beginning of April, Cuban courts dispatched each of these journalists to prison for between 14 and 27 years after three days of sham trials. They were punished for allegedly working with the United States "against the independence and territorial integrity of the state," which is a crime under article 91 of the Cuban criminal code and under article 88 on "protecting national independence" (known as the "gag law").
Those targeted had regularly published articles in the foreign press, mostly American, since no independent or privately-owned newspaper or radio or TV station is allowed in Cuba, and had recently dared to start up two underground publications in Cuba itself - "De Cuba" and "Luz Cubana" - which was unprecedented in the 44 years of President Castro's rule.
This new persecution of political opponents and independent journalists, as well as the execution on 11 April of three would-be refugees who hijacked a ferry in a bid to reach Florida, has revolted democrats around the world, even leading the European Union to reconsider its future economic cooperation with Cuba.
Reporters Without Borders invites the public to sign a petition calling for the immediate release of the 26 journalists, who have been thrown in jail to stop them speaking out freely.
The arrests mean Cuba is now the world's biggest prison for journalists and that President Castro has become the "Maximum Leader" of predators of press freedom.
and
Cuba: back to darkness
You should read Cuba's gag law against independent thinkers. It's a return to the darkest ages of Soviet communism or European fascism.
The Law for the Protection of National Independence and the Economy of Cuba -- better known as Law No. 88 -- was passed by Cuba's rubber-stamp National Assembly , but its full text is only now beginning to circulate among foreign governments and human rights groups.
it's not only directed against Cuba's courageous independent journalists but could be applied to any Cuban who writes a letter abroad complaining about Cuba's problems, or -- God forbid -- suggesting that the Maximum Leader may be less than perfect.
Among its key provisions:
# Article 6: Sets prison terms from three to eight years for those ``who accumulate, reproduce or spread material of subversive character from the government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives, officials, or from any other foreign entity [my italics].''
Target: any publication sent by foreign pro-democracy groups, which often smuggle into the island copies of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, or banned books like George Orwell's Animal Farm and biographies of Martin Luther King and Mohandas K. Ghandi.
# Article 7: Sets penalties from two to five years in prison for ``anyone who . . . collaborates in any way with foreign radio or television stations, newspapers, magazines or other mass media with the purpose of . . . destabilizing the country and destroying the socialist state.'' The penalties rise to three to eight years in prison if such collaboration ``is carried out for profit.''
Target: Cuba's independent journalists, who are not allowed to work in state-controlled media, and sell their reports to foreign media. Many of them have become a more reliable source of news than the Communist Party's daily Granma or the government's news agency Prensa Latina.
# Article 9: Sets prison terms of seven to 15 years to ``anyone who . . . carries out any action aimed at hindering or hurting economic relations of the Cuban state.''
Target: Could be applied against any Cuban who complains to a foreigner about the state of the economy, since such information can lead a potential foreign business partner not to invest on the island.
# Article 11: Sets prison terms of three to eight years to ``anyone who . . . directly or through third parties, receives, distributes or participates in the distribution of financial, material or other resources, from the government of the United States, its agencies, dependencies, representatives, officials or private entities [my italics].''
Target: The paragraph is aimed at prohibiting religious or other nongovernmental organizations from sending money, computers or fax machines to independent groups or individuals in Cuba.
Conclusion: While Law 88 is ostensibly aimed at countering the ``U.S. economic war on Cuba,'' its real target is not the U.S. government -- which has been trying to build bridges to Cuba lately -- but Cuba's independent journalists, independent civic groups on the island, and U.S. and European nongovernmental organizations trying to help them."
I expect this to either not be shown or removed shortly afterwards. I also expect a response from those involved and can be contacted by email as this is not the end of the matter I promise!
Against censorship and personal grudges!
e-mail:
tracea2k@hotmail.com
Additions
Editorial Guidelines and the right way of going about it...
24.08.2007 13:26
Have you read the Editorial Guidelines?
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html
Once you have done that you will know that if you still think that your posts have been wrongly hidden you should be e-mailing imc-uk-features not posting to the newswire.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/static/editorial.html
Once you have done that you will know that if you still think that your posts have been wrongly hidden you should be e-mailing imc-uk-features not posting to the newswire.
imcista
Comments
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I will tell you why
24.08.2007 11:36
Cuba is anti American - a streak of knee jerk anti Americanism runs through Indymedia like much of the European Left.
Cuba claims to be Socialist - It is of course not but that's OK, a country only needs to claim to be Socialist for it to have the blind support of Indymedia.
The Left of Europe would never tolerate the way the Cuban people are treated if they were the victimes of anybody else except Castro. As a person proud to call himself Socialist and with a wish to see a truly Socialist world I have fought for ten years to have the UK Left condem Castro and his treatment of workers and farmers.
They blindly accept the Cuban claims of universal health care, literacy, education standards, local democracy and worker satisfaction without once questioning the bans on travel, political information, telecommunication and assembly. Cuba is a stain on the face of Socialism.
One final thing and here I write as a doctor with seven years work in developing countries and having worked alongside Cuban trained doctors. The next time that somebody tells me that Cuba produces more doctors per head of population than anywhere else in the world I will scream ! Cuba hands out degrees in medicine to individuals so criminaly under trained it is a disgrace. A newly qualified 'Doctor' from Cuba is roughly at the level of a third year medical student from Europe or India.
Those who control Indymedia need to consider why they are happy to support a dictator who permits multiple human rights abuses from his police and military, prevents individuals from leaving the country, has never stood in any form of election, has no mandate from the population to rule and is attempting to pass to control to a family member rather than seeking the wishes of the people.
Anthony L Richardson
Editorial Policies
24.08.2007 11:44
At least one of them has made a number of trips to Cuba (at the expense of the Cuban Tourist Board) so I doubt they want that nice little regular summer holiday to end any time soon.
A representive of the Cuban Embassy in London who goes by the name 'F Espinosa' is a regular contributor to not only the site with regular copies of press releases from the Cuban Interior Ministry but also to Indymedia UK funds with a monthly transfer to their Triodos Bank bank account in Bristol. I doubt they want to see that money stopping.
It's the old story I'm sorry to say - Follow The Money !
Alan
Here's an idea
24.08.2007 11:53
Mr. Igor Caballero
Counsellor for Press Affairs
The Embassy of Cuba
167 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6PA
Tel: 44 (0) 207 240 2488
Fax: 44 (0) 207 836 2602
Bright Spark
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