1
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
exactly the same

2
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
freedom of expression

3
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
have taken place.

4
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
people were talking about.

5
00:00:00,653 --> 00:00:02,979
Hello Eliane, tell me about...

6
00:00:05,439 --> 00:00:07,561
Well, besides your life in Cuba

7
00:00:08,006 --> 00:00:09,677
and everything

8
00:00:09,677 --> 00:00:12,511
how do you see
and what problems do you have

9
00:00:12,511 --> 00:00:15,017
in the coverage you do
for Global Voices

10
00:00:15,017 --> 00:00:16,698
on the island?

11
00:00:17,112 --> 00:00:20,597
I write for Global Voices since 2010

12
00:00:20,597 --> 00:00:23,608
when the regional editor in Spanish

13
00:00:25,051 --> 00:00:28,845
asked me if i wanted to collaborate

14
00:00:29,075 --> 00:00:30,555
and i started to write

15
00:00:30,555 --> 00:00:33,639
very sad news for us:

16
00:00:33,639 --> 00:00:35,335
the fall of a plane

17
00:00:35,351 --> 00:00:37,724
in a province called Sacti Spiritus.

18
00:00:37,724 --> 00:00:39,016
From that moment on

19
00:00:39,016 --> 00:00:41,386
i tried to reconstruct

20
00:00:41,386 --> 00:00:43,538
the voices of what was being said

21
00:00:43,538 --> 00:00:48,668
by the bloggers in the island
the people who had internet

22
00:00:48,668 --> 00:00:51,421
people still with limited means

23
00:00:51,421 --> 00:00:52,969
and slow conection.

24
00:00:53,077 --> 00:00:55,981
Currently, the main problem i have

25
00:00:56,073 --> 00:00:59,752
for the coverage with Global Voices

26
00:00:59,752 --> 00:01:03,394
is trying to give voice to the blogosphere

27
00:01:03,394 --> 00:01:05,522
and spaces in the Internet

28
00:01:05,537 --> 00:01:07,685
but many times things happen in Cuba

29
00:01:07,685 --> 00:01:10,328
and it takes time to get to the Internet

30
00:01:10,328 --> 00:01:13,565
especially because of
this limitation with technology

31
00:01:13,565 --> 00:01:15,644
or with the usage of Internet.

32
00:01:15,674 --> 00:01:18,955
Then we asked ourselves during the summit

33
00:01:18,955 --> 00:01:21,759
if we waited and lost a week

34
00:01:21,759 --> 00:01:25,170
or we tried to go on with the events

35
00:01:25,170 --> 00:01:28,560
as if it was a live coverage,

36
00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:33,106
without having yet
a reflection of the Social Media.

37
00:01:33,106 --> 00:01:34,668
It is a debate that maybe

38
00:01:34,668 --> 00:01:36,109
doesn't affect much to other countries

39
00:01:36,109 --> 00:01:37,231
but for us in Cuba,

40
00:01:37,231 --> 00:01:41,892
it belongs to our day-to-day.

41
00:01:41,892 --> 00:01:45,483
We also try to make the posts
as comprehensive as possible.

42
00:01:45,483 --> 00:01:48,894
Cuba is politically controversial

43
00:01:48,894 --> 00:01:53,205
and there are distant spaces
in the blogosphere

44
00:01:53,205 --> 00:01:55,915
opposed to each other.

45
00:01:55,931 --> 00:01:57,930
It is an everyday challange

46
00:01:57,930 --> 00:02:00,739
trying that the coverage in Cuba

47
00:02:00,739 --> 00:02:03,123
is as neutral as possible

48
00:02:03,123 --> 00:02:06,266
although i personally think

49
00:02:06,266 --> 00:02:07,782
it is something difficult to achieve.

50
00:02:07,797 --> 00:02:12,306
At least we try
it is as balanced and honest as possible.

51
00:02:15,460 --> 00:02:18,586
From all the articles you have written

52
00:02:18,601 --> 00:02:21,600
which reactions have you harvested

53
00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:24,651
to say it somehow

54
00:02:24,682 --> 00:02:27,355
thanks to comments

55
00:02:27,355 --> 00:02:30,667
from the website or other means?

56
00:02:30,667 --> 00:02:35,647
Well, almost all the articles

57
00:02:35,647 --> 00:02:37,186
get very polemic comments

58
00:02:37,186 --> 00:02:41,554
but we always try to answer them.

59
00:02:43,192 --> 00:02:46,413
The most interesting thing it's happened

60
00:02:46,428 --> 00:02:48,351
is all the people who try to contact me

61
00:02:48,351 --> 00:02:49,436
by email

62
00:02:49,436 --> 00:02:51,630
to learn more about Cuba

63
00:02:51,646 --> 00:02:54,654
from what i write in Global Voices.

64
00:02:54,654 --> 00:02:57,500
And also from the series i wrote

65
00:02:57,500 --> 00:02:59,501
about the Wikileaks cables,
i mean,

66
00:02:59,501 --> 00:03:02,538
what the cables said about Cuba.

67
00:03:02,538 --> 00:03:06,211
It generated many comments and replicas

68
00:03:06,211 --> 00:03:08,050
within the official media.

69
00:03:08,050 --> 00:03:09,683
They started to copy the post

70
00:03:09,683 --> 00:03:12,231
in the mainstream media

71
00:03:12,269 --> 00:03:16,052
for trying an analysis in 3 posts

72
00:03:16,052 --> 00:03:17,394
that i wrote essentially

73
00:03:17,394 --> 00:03:19,887
about the topics

74
00:03:20,141 --> 00:03:22,764
A quantitative analysys at the beginning.

75
00:03:22,764 --> 00:03:25,327
Then explaining the topics, the postures

76
00:03:25,327 --> 00:03:26,859
about the topics

77
00:03:26,859 --> 00:03:27,759
and it was very interesting

78
00:03:27,759 --> 00:03:29,067
because it was published

79
00:03:29,067 --> 00:03:30,285
exclusively for Global Voices

80
00:03:30,285 --> 00:03:32,969
and suddenly other media started to publish it.

81
00:03:33,061 --> 00:03:36,239
Translations are also interesting.

82
00:03:36,239 --> 00:03:39,488
It is not as exciting and new to me

83
00:03:39,488 --> 00:03:41,481
to see the posts translated into English.

84
00:03:41,481 --> 00:03:44,537
But to enter one day and see the posts

85
00:03:44,537 --> 00:03:46,363
in Magyar or Aymara

86
00:03:46,379 --> 00:03:48,935
or languages not very known in the world

87
00:03:48,935 --> 00:03:51,308
is exremely good because you know

88
00:03:51,308 --> 00:03:55,949
people there can read about Cuba

89
00:03:55,949 --> 00:03:58,468
or at least have the possibility

90
00:03:58,468 --> 00:04:00,551
of having those stories about Cuba.

91
00:04:02,966 --> 00:04:07,379
You take part in the Cuban blogosphere

92
00:04:07,887 --> 00:04:11,878
How is the relationship with your parents?

93
00:04:11,924 --> 00:04:14,469
To take part in the cuban blogosphere

94
00:04:14,469 --> 00:04:15,691
is something complicated and complex.

95
00:04:15,691 --> 00:04:18,300
A blogosphere is in constant growth.

96
00:04:20,107 --> 00:04:23,992
Cuba has almost 600 blogs nowadays.

97
00:04:23,992 --> 00:04:25,233
It can seem not much,

98
00:04:25,233 --> 00:04:26,698
but for a country with just a 14%

99
00:04:26,698 --> 00:04:29,799
of Internet penetration, it's a lot,

100
00:04:29,799 --> 00:04:31,877
because some people are dedicating

101
00:04:31,877 --> 00:04:33,948
their free time
and the connection from their jobs,

102
00:04:33,948 --> 00:04:36,311
because they hardly ever have at home,

103
00:04:36,311 --> 00:04:38,822
to tell something about reality in Cuba.

104
00:04:38,822 --> 00:04:42,172
Suddenly being immersed in this dynamics

105
00:04:42,172 --> 00:04:46,776
in 2009 when i created my blog
it was something

106
00:04:46,776 --> 00:04:50,126
very solitary, there were not many people

107
00:04:50,126 --> 00:04:52,147
not many bloggers

108
00:04:52,147 --> 00:04:53,986
and we barely talked to each other.

109
00:04:53,986 --> 00:04:56,082
But in 2012
some national in-person meetings

110
00:04:56,082 --> 00:05:00,478
of bloggers in Cuba

111
00:05:00,478 --> 00:05:02,684
There have been citizen actions

112
00:05:02,684 --> 00:05:04,834
such us the cleaning 
of the river Almendares

113
00:05:04,834 --> 00:05:07,094
completely announced by the social network

114
00:05:07,109 --> 00:05:10,135
that gathered people from inside 
and outside Cuba.

115
00:05:10,135 --> 00:05:12,675
There have been computer teaching

116
00:05:12,691 --> 00:05:15,567
programs related to technology

117
00:05:15,567 --> 00:05:19,304
for citizens with less knowledge.

118
00:05:19,304 --> 00:05:22,387
It starts to be a big community

119
00:05:22,387 --> 00:05:25,352
where it is still difficult 
to reach a consensus

120
00:05:25,352 --> 00:05:29,927
but where one can create 
interesting debate areas,

121
00:05:29,927 --> 00:05:33,059
generate productive dialogues

122
00:05:33,059 --> 00:05:36,404
where we are learning a little

123
00:05:36,420 --> 00:05:39,276
to be more comprehensive,

124
00:05:39,276 --> 00:05:41,239
to respect the voice of others,

125
00:05:41,239 --> 00:05:44,170
to understand every blog is
an unique individual experience

126
00:05:45,689 --> 00:05:48,932
that doesn't have to fit 
with everybody.

127
00:05:48,932 --> 00:05:51,391
That teaches us to respect others,

128
00:05:51,407 --> 00:05:54,149
to understand the terms

129
00:05:54,149 --> 00:05:58,522
or the respect to differences
thanks to the Internet.

130
00:05:58,722 --> 00:06:08,465
In Cuba, i think there is only 
the media of the government,

131
00:06:08,465 --> 00:06:10,143
correct me if i am wrong.

132
00:06:10,143 --> 00:06:12,510
We have the official media, 
which are state-owned.

133
00:06:12,510 --> 00:06:18,172
Cuban official media belong to the State.

134
00:06:18,172 --> 00:06:21,107
The Workers Central Union of Cuba,
for example,

135
00:06:21,137 --> 00:06:23,612
has its own media; the Communist Party,

136
00:06:23,612 --> 00:06:27,645
Cuba's Young Communist Union also has 
its own media...

137
00:06:27,645 --> 00:06:29,047
As for university students,

138
00:06:29,047 --> 00:06:30,787
they have the Alma Mater magazine,

139
00:06:30,787 --> 00:06:33,040
and almost every sector
is represented,

140
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:34,368
Although the most recognised media
are state-owned

141
00:06:39,079 --> 00:06:41,358
the relationship with the blogosphere
with the state-owned media

142
00:06:41,373 --> 00:06:43,097
is very interesting,

143
00:06:43,112 --> 00:06:45,185
even if at the beginning

144
00:06:45,185 --> 00:06:46,869
they were not very listened or read

145
00:06:46,869 --> 00:06:48,313
because we were very few.

146
00:06:48,313 --> 00:06:52,539
Nowadays we are fairly read and quoted,

147
00:06:52,539 --> 00:06:55,003
Cuban bloggers are interwied
in press

148
00:06:55,003 --> 00:06:57,173
and there are also many topics

149
00:06:57,173 --> 00:06:59,755
that concern the citizens

150
00:07:01,596 --> 00:07:06,177
and then are taken by the
traditional journalism.

151
00:07:06,177 --> 00:07:09,390
They fulfil deeper researches,
investigations,

152
00:07:09,390 --> 00:07:12,200
and then it starts to exist a dialogue

153
00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,936
between bloggers and 
traditional journalists.

154
00:07:14,936 --> 00:07:18,584
I don't think it is a relationship 
of deep aversion

155
00:07:18,599 --> 00:07:20,985
or discredit to bloggers

156
00:07:20,985 --> 00:07:22,832
for the fact of being bloggers.

157
00:07:22,832 --> 00:07:24,848
If there is a discredit to bloggers

158
00:07:24,848 --> 00:07:27,383
it is for certain political tendencies

159
00:07:27,383 --> 00:07:31,398
but on the basis of political documents,

160
00:07:31,398 --> 00:07:32,167
not for being a blogger

161
00:07:32,167 --> 00:07:35,553
or using new technologies
to tell your reality,

162
00:07:35,553 --> 00:07:37,304
as it can happen in other countries

163
00:07:37,304 --> 00:07:39,693
where not having
a journalism degree

164
00:07:39,693 --> 00:07:41,809
can invalidate a citizen.

165
00:07:41,809 --> 00:07:44,489
I don't think it is the case of Cuba,
yet.

166
00:07:44,489 --> 00:07:47,611
At least not for the moment.

167
00:07:47,611 --> 00:07:50,000
Thank you, Elaine.