n Cuba extreme censorship is real. It is not just a marketing moniker so freely applied to corn chips, soda and SUVs. In Cuba, the government doesn't just control the public's access to media or the content of media, they outlaw any media that is not controlled by the government, with the exception of a few publications by Catholic dioceses in Cuba that offer only the most hesitant and indirect criticism of the Castro regime. In their efforts to control the media they have even gone so far as to confiscate pens and paper from "dissident" journalists.

In March of 2003, Fidel Castro arrested and imprisoned over 50 political dissidents along with 26 independent journalists. These independent journalists did not publish in Cuban outlets. They are Cubans writing for newspapers outside of Cuba, mostly in The United States. Their sentences range from 14 years to 28 years. Castro's precious "beloved leader" image was safe with the people of Cuba from these dissidents because they could not legally access any foreign media sources. What was really at stake for Castro was the truth of his brutal, degrading, freedom-hating dictatorship being known to the world. Not that the world doesn't already know about the violations of freedom that occur under Castro, but the daily details, which these journalists reported to the world, must be known. The world should be constantly reminded of the details of the evils of communism under Castro.

These journalists are not just in any prison, they are held in squalid, unsanitary, inhuman gulags. As reported by Reporters Without Borders on their website (www.rsf.org) the "prisoners" are moved to facilities far from their families, denied medical treatment and fed poorly. They are accused of publishing biased articles in the foreign press that are critical of Castro, his regime and communism in general. The organization Reporters Without Borders, in which many of these journalists' works appears, is listed as a French terrorist organization, used by the US government.

These brave journalists cannot be ignored or forgotten. Keep them in your thoughts. Write letters to your elected officials and urge them to shine the light of freedom. The names of all 26 imprisoned journalists and the details of the their sentences can be found here at the Reporters Without Borders website (Reporters Without Borders is an excellent site for information about the repression of free speech and the repression of free speech advocates; however, their political views are not necessarily shared with the staff of Digital Freedom Network).