The Censor Censored

Alfredo Fernandez

HAVANA TIMES — According to the April news summary on the Rebelion web site, “A Cuban blogger is suffering censorship in his country.” This blogger is Iroel Sanchez, who was allegedly censored by the Havana correspondent for the Associated Press, a US news agency.

When the responses to his five questions were given to him in two sentences, he denounced this as victimization in the April 28 entry in his blog La pupila insomne, where we can compare the differences between his responses and those published by the new agency.

This horrifies me because no one should be censored, at least if their words aren’t inciting violence, stirring the fires of prejudice or denigrating others.

However, I don’t think this is what happened to Iroel Sanchez.

On the other hand, how can one explain his own actions three years ago as the director Cuban Book Institute (ICL) when he censored a book of short stories (Boring Home, by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo). He was the one who prevented the publication of that work.

Sanchez has not only censored writers, but in his blog he often attempts to discredit those who think differently from himself – branding them “annexationists” or “mercenaries” in the best of cases.

I don’t think AP’s Havana correspondent should ever be given the dubious luxury of giving Iroel a taste of his own medicine.

Such a position by the news agency violates the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to free speech or religious freedom.

The journalists writing for AP in Cuba should respect what Iroel says, as long as — I repeat — he doesn’t harm the dignity of any other person or incite violence. In this way they won’t be stooping to the depths of this “blogger” in the pay of the Cuban government.