The Hunger Strike

With irrelevant hunger strikes being hyped by the media - Sheehan and Hussein - while real hunger strikes - such as Guillermo Fariñas - go unnoticed, I decided to type hunger strike into Google News.

The result? Another unnoticed real hunger strike; so real that this Akbar Mohammadi died from it.

How come this isn't getting any play in the news?

Tags: Iran, Dissident, Hunger Strike, Political Prisoner, Akbar Mohammadi

Fariñas Harrassed in Hospital

Remember him? The Cubanacan Press director? The independent journalist in Cuba in a hunger strike for SIX months in order to gain the right to freely access the Internet and use his email?

He's been IV fed for a while now and kept barely alive in a hospital. However, all that could end. Why? Because Fariñas is threatening to have the IV removed unless he is given a room where he can have visitors and a phone that works.

His mother tells EFE the story, in Spanish via El Nuevo Herald.

Tags: Cuba, Democracy, Journalism, Free Speech, Human Rights, Guillermo Fariñas

Guillermo Fariñas - My Personal Cause

I started this post yesterday evening; but then blogger crashed and I lost it. I was so mad I had to walk away. So here we go, with take two.

Ever since I first posted about this story, now more than a month ago, Guillermo Fariñas became close to my heart. I do not know him, have not spoken with him, have not met him; all I know is he is fighting for his freedom to report, freedom of the press, the same freedom I have as I write this post and the same freedom you have to read it.

Guillermo Fariñas is fighting for his right to access to the Internet, so he can continue to report the abuses, censorship, and attacks on dissidents in Cuba. His weapon of choice, is his own life. He is on a hunger strike for access to the Internet, his emails and his right to freedom of the press - to report a story as he sees it, not as the government tells him it has to be seen.

As of late, little by little, more and more venues are picking up the story and reporting it, trying to give Guillermo Fariñas a stronger voice, and support in his effort.

In the most recent piece, and op-ed, The Miami Herald reports (my emphasis):

Desperate for freedom
OUR OPINION: CUBA IMPOSES AN INFORMATION BLOCKADE
The Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas is hungry to inform. To protest Cuba's cutting off his e-mail access, he has taken no food or water since Jan. 31. He has vowed not to resume eating until his e-mail is unblocked. The regime, meanwhile, shows no sign of easing up.

A psychologist turned independent journalist in a dictatorship that allows no free press, Mr. Fariñas directed the Cubanacán news agency from the city of Santa Clara. He sent uncensored accounts of human-rights abuses and other news via e-mail from an Internet café. That ended after he described to The Miami Herald a government-organized mob attack typical of the tightening squeeze on Cuban dissidents.

''I got on my knees and said, `Down With Fidel!','' Mr. Fariñas was quoted in the front page of the newspaper. ``They started kicking and beating me, bruising my back, arm and head. They stopped when they saw I would not lose my dignity and say things I didn't feel.''

The next day, his e-mail was blocked, and his hunger strike soon followed. Now he is being fed intravenously in a hospital and has lost more than 60 pounds.

Many people protest the Chinese government's Internet censorship, and with good reason. Freedom of information is a fundamental right. Cuba has been controlling Internet access and blocking websites for years and should be condemned, too.

Indeed, Cuba's information blockade has allowed it to misinform the Cuban people, promote its image abroad and sustain its dictator in power for nearly five decades.
We do not condone Mr. Fariñas' hunger strike and hope he ends it before his health is damaged even more. But his voice should not be silenced by any government.

His courage under repression is admirable. Mr. Fariñas' desperation for freedom is yet another measure of Cuba's brutality.

What will it take for this man to be granted his Internet? Will he ultimately die? Will the world allow this to happen? Uncommon Sense has more on Guillermo Fariñas here.

Previous Posts:
Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom - Update
Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom
Fariñas Still on Hunger Strike
Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom Continues
Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom - Update on Fariñas

Related Links:
Hunger strike continues
Guillermo Fariñas Update,
Guillermo Fariñas Update 2Are you ready for this?

Tags: Cuba, Internet, Freedom, Fidel Castro, Human Rights, Journalism, Dissident

Hunger Strike for Internet Freedom - In Cuba

UPDATE: 2/17 Hunger Strike Continues
UPDATE: 2/15 Still on Hunger Strike
UPDATE: 2/4 More on RWB and lack of Internet access in Cuba here.

I just ran into this great and sad story, about Guillermo Fariñas conducting a hunger strike "to the death" in Cuba. His request? Internet access for the journalists so they can do their work. Internet access, the same one that allows you to read this blog, read the news, read opposing sides. That basic tool for reporters today, denied to the Cuban independent press, because in Cuba only the state sponsored venues have the resources. The whole story is here. The Hunger strike is on its 4th day.

"I want all Cuban citizens to have the right to an Internet connection, but also for the independent press to be able to report on the government's activities, and if I must be a martyr for Internet access, so be it."

Guillermo, so do we.

"The authorities use the US embargo as a pretext for a repressive policy towards the Internet. The chief reason for keeping citizens away from the Internet is to prevent them from being well-informed." Of course, no easier way to keep the population under control than without information - Hitler was a great example of this. His first victims were the teachers and the press. China knows this well too, as we have learned from the recent MSN and Google incursions into the China market.

Tags: Cuba, Freedom, Human Rights, Civil Rights, Journalism, Dissident