Talking to Elaine Díaz about the Cuban Blogosphere.

Talking to Elaine Díaz about the Cuban blogosphere. in the GV Summit 2012. Pride Inn Raphta Road, Nairobi, Kenia, July 3rd 2012, 3.22pm.

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.

exactly the same

freedom of expression

have taken place.

people were talking about.