In this week’s address in Cuba, President Barack Obama made a plea for free speech for Cuban citizens, “I believe citizens should be free to speak their mind without fear. To organize and to criticize their government and to protest peacefully, and that the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who express those rights,” he said. (Business Insider, March 22, 2016, by Maxwell Tani)
Human rights advocates were quick to seize the opportunity to implore Obama to apply his views on free expression to Saudi Arabia who recently imprisoned and lashed a pro-democracy blogger. (U.S. News & World Report, March 22, 2016, by Steven Nelson)
An editorial in the Tampa Bay Times, March 21, 2016, pointed out the differences between the U.S. and Cuba as Cuba arrested dissidents before Obama arrived, put the lid on demonstrations and created an atmosphere of intimidation for the Cuban press. “While Cuba has loosened government restrictions on the economy, allowing small-scale private ventures, there has been no corresponding move to ease limits on speech, assembly, the press or open participation in a free political process,” wrote the Times.