Due to Cuba's communist government and the US embargo of Cuba, the flow of information between the two countries is limited. In 2003, the friends of Cuban libraries spoke out against US regulations which were delaying the editing process of works from Cuba, as well as the Sudan and North Korea. More recently, the US has reaffirmed its policy, "which exempts informational materials from embargo regulations." This policy is based on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing everyone the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." This policy is ignored within Cuba where all materials considered "counterrevolutionary" are banned and librarians who disregard the ban have been jailed. Two examples of banned materials that were cited are the aforementioned Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the novel "Animal Farm," by George Orwell. More information on this subject can be found at www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org andwww.ruleoflawandcuba.fsu.edu.
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This is an interesting subject. Whenever I read complaints against Cuba's censorship of literature or other published materials, I can't help but think that even the most liberal of democracies struggle with the question of where to draw the line between appropriate free speech and that which can legitimately be censored. As Jessican rightly notes, the Cuban government censors "counterrevolutionary" materials and even imprisons individuals who ignore its censorship mandates, which is undoubtedly a violation of human rights and free speech; but movements to ban the Harry Potter books in the U.S. seem to me to be not that far removed from the same intolerant attitude.
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