Censorship in Cuba is the topic of accusations put forward by several foreign groups-organizations and political leaders, as well as Cuban dissidents.
[8] In recent years, this has changed with the Cuban public having easy (but often expensive) access to the internet and mobile phones with little apparent filtering taking place.
[12] Laws related to censorship include: The Interior Ministry has principal responsibility for monitoring the Cuban population for signs of dissent.
[13] The Singular Systems of Vigilance and Protection (Sistema Unico de Vigilancia y Protección, SUVP) reach across several state institutions, including the Communist Party, the police, the CDRs, the state-controlled labor union, student groups, and members of mass organizations.
[23] In 1963, using Soviet-supplied equipment, Cuba became the first nation in the Western Hemisphere to jam radio broadcasts, the apparent targets being the anti-Castro stations in the US.
[23] The Communist regime established a control of Cuba's film industry, and it was made compulsory for all movies to be censored by the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematográficos before broadcast or release.
[25] In recent years, with the emergence of alternative methods to create films, according to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), "the list of censored or repressed works increased rapidly".
[27] This effort for an organized, independent, and uncensored news agency was spearheaded by Cuban human rights activist and then-President of Christian Democratic Movement of Cuba Jesús Permuy.
[27] It formally began in May of that year as Members of Civic Democratic Action, an umbrella group of nearly twenty Castro opposition organizations, formed an alliance with the Independent Cuban Journalists Association.
The judges characterized the group's actions as nonviolent, but found they had prepared and distributed calls for changes in the country's social, political, and economic systems, citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[8] An article published on 19 November 1999 by Maria Elena Rodriguez, a journalist for the Cuba-Verdad Press, described the burning and burying of hundreds of books donated to Cuba by the government of Spain.
[29] In 2002, following the Hip Hop Festival held in Havana in August, the Casa de Cultura in Alamar received an order from the Ministry of Culture to review the lyrics of rap songs before the start of any concert.
The strident notes coming from the barrios and caseríos that scared the State so much when they first came out they started softening themselves to take advantage of the promotional opportunities offered by those same people who initiated the hunting spree.
[12][36] In March 2012 Cuban police beat and then arrested at least 50 female members of the Ladies in White, a prominent dissident group, who were holding demonstrations just days before the visit of Pope Benedict XVI.
[37] On 24 July 2012 dozens of anti-government activists were arrested as they made their way to the funeral of Oswaldo Paya Sardiñas, a prominent critic of Cuba's government.
The service was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development through its Office of Transition Initiatives, who utilized contractors and front companies in the Cayman Islands, Spain and Ireland.
[48] In November 2006 the U.S. State Department's Office for Cuban Affairs issued a statement praising the Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations for their efforts to bring attention to the "unjust jailing of journalists" in Cuba.