Cuba: Yay buyers; boo bloggers

There is a clear case of mistaken Internet priorities by the Cuban government.

Authorities on the island have allowed a Spanish-based firm to run an online shopping site on the island during the holidays. "It's a good business but it's also a way for Cubans (overseas) to help their family members here," said one of the executives of mallhabana.com to the AP. Though the site has been around since 2006, Cuban officials have been heavily promoting it during the holiday season.

Mallhabana.com certainly helps with the flow of goods on the island for those Cubans with the luxury of shopping online. But what about the flow of information through websites such as personal blogs? Unfortunately, the island’s authorities haven’t looked as kindly on bloggers as they have on shopping sites:

Police have prohibited Cuba's most prominent blogger from attending an independent cyber-workshop and warned that her activities ran afoul of the law, her husband said.

Yoani Sanchez and husband and fellow blogger Reynaldo Escobar were summoned separately (on December 3rd) to a police station near their apartment in Havana's Vedado district and reprimanded, Escobar said in a telephone interview.

Authorities told the couple they could not travel to the western province of Pinar del Rio for a two-day blogger's workshop…

Another Havana blogger, Claudia Cadelo, was also called into a meeting with police, but failed to appear because she is in the hospital, Escobar said.

Cubans can ostensibly purchase a computer via mallhabana.com (with the government’s complicity) yet cannot express themselves freely once they go online.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Image- Mother Jones
Online Sources- Toronto Sun, AP