Thank god for the internet! Thanks to the internet we can discover that the ‘freedom of the internet’ campaign, by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), relies on political advice on which ‘repressive countries’ to target from the US State Department (1). On the basis of this campaign, the US State Department then announced that RSF had ‘independently’ declared Cuba (and others) as an ‘enemy of the internet’ (2).

An article on the RSF website does admit that the US economic blockade against Cuba “may indeed explain the slowness of the Cuban Internet and the endless lines outside Internet cafes”(3). In 2005, 12 journalists were murdered in Mexico, Brazil and Peru. However the main ‘enemy’ of journalists in the region, according to RSF, is Cuba, where no journalist has been murdered since 1959 (4)

Fortunately, through the internet, we can discover that Reporters Without Borders is partly funded by the US State Department, and by various US backed private organisations, such as the Florida based ‘Center for a Free Cuba’ (5) and the President Reagan created and US Congress funded ‘National Endowment for Democracy’. RSF head Robert Ménard admits “We indeed receive money from the NED. And that hasn’t posed any problem.”(4) The NED recently funded journalists during elections in Haiti (6).

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1. Reporters Without Borders – Freedom of the Internet campaign
Petition 6 Jan 2006
“A list of countries that repress freedom of expression would be drawn up on the basis of documents provided by the US State Department and would be appended to the code of conduct or law that is adopted. This list would be regularly updated.”
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16110

2. Global Press Group Calls Cuban Government Enemy of the Internet
Reporters Without Borders listed Cuba among 15 nations as Internet enemies
By Eric Green – 03 February 2006
“Washington — A global press advocacy group is continuing its criticism of Cuba's Communist regime with a statement rebuking the Cuban government for its ‘repressive policy toward the Internet.’”
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=w...

3. Going online in Cuba – Internet under surveillance, RSF
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19335

4. The Reporters Without Borders Fraud by Salim Lamrani May 13 2005
Znet, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?Sectio...

5. Reporters Without Borders Unmasked, By DIANA BARAHONA
Counter Punch, May 17, 2005, http://www.counterpunch.org/barahona05172005.html
Through the US Government backed and Florida based ‘Center for a Free Cuba’ – Otto Reich, Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere for the Secretary of State, arranged payment to Reporters Without Borders of 24,970 euros in 2002, and 59,201 euros in 2003.

6. Denial in Haiti, Haiti Action, 30 Dec 2005
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/FP/12_29_5/12_29_5...