Censorship in Cuba operates through a linked set of controls: the constitution forbids private ownership of media, criminal laws punish dissenting speech with sentences reaching 20 years, a single state company controls all internet and telecommunications, foreign and independent news sites are blocked, and journalists and artists who work outside official channels face fines, detention, equipment seizures, and prison. The result is an information environment where almost everything a Cuban reads, watches, or hears through legal channels has been approved by the state.
The Laws That Make Dissent a Crime
The 2019 constitution sets the frame. Article 54 recognizes freedom of thought and expression, and Article 55 then declares that “the fundamental means of social communication, in any of their forms, are the socialist property of all people or of political, social, and mass organizations, and may not be categorized as any other type of property.”1Constitute Project. Cuba 2019 Constitution No private person or company can legally own a newspaper, radio station, television channel, or news website. Press freedom, the same article says, is exercised “according to the law and for the good of society,” a phrase that leaves the state to decide what qualifies.
Several statutes then convert that framework into criminal exposure. Law 88, the “Law for the Protection of Cuba’s National Independence and Economy,” punishes anyone who “accumulates, reproduces or spreads material of a subversive nature” with sentences of up to 20 years, plus fines and confiscation.2Committee to Protect Journalists. International Guarantees and Cuban Law It was the basis for the 2003 “Black Spring,” when 75 journalists, librarians, and activists were arrested in a single week and sentenced to prison terms averaging nearly two decades.
The 2022 Penal Code widened the government’s reach. Article 120 allows four to ten years for anyone who “endangers the constitutional order and normal functioning of the State and the Cuban government.”3Amnesty International. Cuba – New Criminal Code Is a Chilling Prospect for 2023 and Beyond Article 143 sets the same range for receiving foreign funding, a provision that puts most independent Cuban outlets at legal risk because they depend on foreign grants. A 2024 Social Communication Law added a further layer of state oversight over all media.
Why There Are No Private Newspapers or TV Stations
Every television station, radio network, and major print publication in Cuba operates under direct government control. The newspaper Granma is the official organ of the Communist Party, and the National Institute of Radio and Television oversees broadcasting. Editorial guidelines come from the Party, and journalists inside the official system follow them.
Because private media ownership is unconstitutional, there is no licensing regime to apply to. The state exercises full prior restraint over what reaches the public through official channels. Foreign publications are separately restricted at the border: importation and distribution of foreign newspapers and books is limited, and where foreign media is available at all, it tends to be in tourist hotels rather than in ordinary Cuban households.
How the Internet Is Controlled
The state-owned Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba (ETECSA) holds an exclusive monopoly over telecommunications and internet infrastructure. That concession runs through 2036 and can be renewed in 15-year increments through 2066.
Access is slow and expensive. Fixed broadband averages around 3 Mbps on Ookla speed tests, and mobile connections often drop below 1 Mbps in practice.4Havana Times. Internet in Cuba Is One of the Worst in the World With the average monthly salary sitting at roughly 6,650 Cuban pesos in the first half of 2025, ETECSA’s data packages take a meaningful bite of household income. Cost and speed together work as a filter on how much time anyone can spend online.
ETECSA’s monopoly also gives the government direct control over what loads. Foreign news sites, independent Cuban outlets, and certain social media platforms are routinely blocked. Freedom House’s 2024 Freedom on the Net report classifies Cuba as “Not Free,” documenting network restrictions, blocked social media and websites, pro-government commentators deployed online, and arrests for online activity.5Freedom House. Cuba – Freedom on the Net 2024 Country Report
During the nationwide protests of July 11, 2021, the government shut internet access down entirely. Monitoring showed BGP routes collapsing across the country, and WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger went dark, cutting off protesters’ ability to organize and blocking real-time reporting to the outside world.
Two decree-laws support this ongoing control. Decree-Law 35, adopted in 2021, criminalizes online content deemed “against the constitutional, social and economic precepts of the State” or that “incites mobilizations or other acts that alter the public order.” It also lets ETECSA shut down networks and services that transmit information the state classifies as false, offensive, or contrary to public morality.6Committee to Protect Journalists. Cuba Passes Regulations Criminalizing Online Content Decree-Law 370 goes at individuals. Its Article 68 bans hosting websites on foreign servers and prohibits spreading information “contrary to the social interest, morals, good manners and integrity of people” on public networks.7Civil Rights Defenders. Cuba – Declare Decree-Law 370 Unconstitutional Since independent Cuban outlets are denied the domestic “.cu” domain, the foreign-server ban effectively outlaws their online presence. Penalties include fines and confiscation of equipment.
What Happens to Independent Journalists
Independent journalism is not simply discouraged. In 2021, a reform to Decree-Law 141 published a list of banned self-employment activities that explicitly excluded “production and distribution of information,” news agencies, radio transmissions, audiovisual production, and newspaper publishing from the 124 permitted categories of private work.8IPI. Cuba – Independent Journalism Officially Outlawed by the Regime Independent reporters have no way to register their work, obtain press credentials, or claim professional protections.
The Committee to Protect Journalists’ most recent annual census counted 51 journalists imprisoned in Cuba, one of the highest totals in the world. Freelance reporters Yadiel Hernández and José Gabriel Barrenechea, both writing for the online newspaper 14ymedio, faced prolonged pretrial detention in 2025. Yeris Curbelo Aguilera was sentenced to two years in prison in September 2024. José Luis Tan Estrada left Cuba in late 2024 after months of escalating pressure from state security.
Decree-Law 370 has been used heavily for lower-level punishment. Journalists and bloggers have been fined 3,000 Cuban pesos for social media posts critical of the government.7Civil Rights Defenders. Cuba – Declare Decree-Law 370 Unconstitutional When those fines were first imposed in 2019 and 2020, that figure came to roughly three months of average pay. Currency restructuring has shifted the arithmetic, but the amount remains punitive in a period of severe inflation.
Formal cases sit on top of steady informal pressure. Independent journalists face short-term arbitrary detentions, interrogations by state security, and confiscation of cameras, computers, and phones. The tactic wears people down without generating the headlines a prison sentence produces.
Limits on Artists
Controls extend past journalism. Decree 349, enacted in 2018, requires artists to obtain advance government permission for all public and private exhibitions and performances and prohibits the sale of artwork without state approval.9Wikipedia. Decree 349 Cultural inspectors can shut down unauthorized performances and confiscate materials on the spot. Musicians, visual artists, performers, and writers who fall out of favor can be denied authorization and left unable to work legally. The San Isidro Movement, an artists’ collective that emerged partly in protest against Decree 349, has faced repeated raids, arrests, and forced exile of members.
How Cubans Get Around It
Workarounds exist, though the state pushes against them.
El Paquete Semanal
The most widespread is El Paquete Semanal, or “The Weekly Package,” a compilation of digital content distributed by hand on USB drives and hard drives. It carries recent films and television series from international streaming services, music, apps, classified ads, and digital magazines. A chain of producers, promoters, and couriers assembles and delivers it weekly across the island. The government tolerates it because participants generally keep news and overt politics out of the package, staying below the enforcement threshold.
SNET
For years, Havana residents built SNET, a community mesh network that connected roughly 100,000 users at its peak through home-rigged routers and neighborhood cables. Users reached social networking sites, gaming platforms, and offline copies of reference materials like Wikipedia without touching the global internet. SNET’s own rules banned political and religious discussion in an attempt to survive. The government eventually absorbed it under new regulations requiring all community networks to be registered and state-supervised, and members were pressed to donate their equipment to expand the official intranet.
VPNs
Some Cubans use virtual private networks to reach blocked sites. The legal status of personal VPN use is ambiguous rather than explicitly prohibited, but ETECSA controls the pipes and can block VPN traffic at the network level and monitor what passes through. Using one carries practical risk even without a specific criminal ban.
What International Bodies Say
In February 2026, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that Cuba’s electricity crisis was disrupting “communications and access to information” and emphasized that Cuba must respond to its socioeconomic crisis in accordance with international human rights law, including “safeguarding the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression for all.”10OHCHR. Concerns Over Cubas Deepening Economic Crisis The Organization of American States has documented Law 88’s penalties of up to 20 years, and its Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression has called Cuba’s legal framework incompatible with inter-American human rights standards.11Organization of American States. Evaluation of the Situation of Freedom of Expression in the Hemisphere The trend since 2021 has moved toward more laws, more prosecutions, and more sophisticated tools for controlling what Cubans can say, read, and share.