Herald on Fariñas

It's about time the MSM jumps on the Guillermo Fariñas story. It's been well over a month now since he's been on a hunger strike.

Here's an admittedly excellent editorial by the Herald concerning Mr. Fariñas and the state of Cuba's information censorship.

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.