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Freedom House gave Cuba one of its lowest rankings - 6.5 out of 7 points - in its annual global survey of civil liberties and political rights.
The organization reported a "systematic increase in short-term 'preventative' detentions of dissidents in 2012, in addition to harassment, beatings, acts of repudiation, and restrictions on foreign and domestic travel.
"Freedom House said the "estimated effective Internet penetration rate" in Cuba "is less than 3 percent, one of the lowest in the world."
"Freedom House said the "estimated effective Internet penetration rate" in Cuba "is less than 3 percent, one of the lowest in the world."
Even so, "an estimated 70 independent, journalistic bloggers" are active on the island.
While some have kept their distance from the political opposition and restricted their activities to the internet, others have faced harassment and detention for supporting dissidents.Predictably, Freedom House rated Cuba as "not free," with conditions similar to those in Belarus, Chad, China and Laos.
In all, the organization judged 47 nations as "not free."
Cuba managed to stay off the very bottom of the list. That distinction went to nine nations - Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - which all received the lowest possible score of 7.
Freedom House map
Freedom House wrote that 90 nations were "free" in 2012, up three over 2011. But 27 countries showed a decline in freedom and only 16 had gains, the organization reported. Freedom House said:
Among the most striking gains for freedom was that of Libya, which advanced from Not Free to Partly Free and registered one of the most substantial one-year numerical improvements in the report's nearly 40-year history. Burma and a number of African countries, including Côte d'ivoire, Guinea, Lesotho, Senegal, and Sierra Leone, also saw major advances. Noteworthy declines were recorded for Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.
The Middle East showed ambiguous results for the year. In addition to major gains for Libya, and Tunisia's