Cuban bloggers risk it all to share their views online.

Earlier this year, President Raul Castro let ordinary Cubans buy personal computers for the first time.

Whether this proves things are changing is debatable, however, since the astronomical price of PCs and extremely tight restrictions on Internet use effectively keep most Cubans from going online.

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Yet like everything else in Cuba, some people have managed to get around the regime's rules and publicize their views via their own online journals or weblogs (known as "blogs" for short).

These blogs are frequently updated and embedded with digital images and videoclips--and the most famous blogger of all is 33-year-old Yoani Sanchez of Havana.

Although such blogs are commonplace in the United States and elsewhere, in Cuba the mere act of posting uncensored material on the web is illegal. Cubans who engage in such activity run a real risk of arrest and other forms of reprisals by authorities.

Nevertheless, since April 2007, Sanchez has been doing just that, disguising herself as a turista and slipping into hotels that offer web access to foreigners.

Despite the hefty $6 an hour that's typically charged for Internet access at such hotels, Sanchez plugs away, typing up criticism of the Cuban political and economic system, and even posting accompanying photos to make a point, under the web page called "Generacion Y" (http://www.desdecuba.com/generaciony/).

Her postings, maintained by a server in Berlin, have generated over a million hits a month and made headlines in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Sanchez, who's also been interviewed by Jorge Ramos of the Spanish-language Univision TV network, was also awarded the prestigious Ortega y Gasset prize by the Madrid newspaper El Pais for digital journalism--though Cuban authorities prevented her from flying to Spain to receive the prize in person.

Among Sanchez's more recent provocative postings have been essays protesting the arrest of Gorki Aguila Carrasco, 39, leader of a Havana punk rock band called Porno Para Ricardo, for "pre-criminal social dangerousness." She compared that to the script of the Tom Cruise film "Minority Report."

CUBAN BLOGS NOT JUST IN CUBA

Another Havana-based blogger is 49-year-old Miriam Celaya, who started her own bilingual page in January 2008, "Sin Evasion" to chronicle the day-to-day difficulties Cubans face (http://desdecuba.com/sin_evasion_en/).

Before she revealed her true identity and photo on a July 22, 2008, posting, Celaya used the pseudonym "Eva Garcia."

One of her latest postings noted the growing shortage of basic foods and other household necessities in Havana following hurricanes Gustav and Ike, while a Sept. 16 posting detailed the poorly run government shelters that locals were forced into during the storms.

Blogs are also popping up by Cuban exiles living in North America and Europe. One that's based in Canada, "Al Godar" (http://algodar. blogspot.com/) gives Cubans on and off the island a way of communicating with each another by posting messages on his site.

Ivan Armenteros, a blogger who migrated from Cuba to Pennsylvania in 1980, is using his "Bloggers por un Sueno" page (http://bloggerdecuba.blogspot.com) to urge readers to donate money for hurricane relief.

A blog based in Miramar, Fla., "Generacion Asere" (http://generacionasere.blogspot.com) supports Yoani Sanchez and advocates the existence of "blogostroika"--free access to the web for all Cubans on the island.

Not only Cuban exiles who conduct their postings in relative obscurity have blogs. Last month, at a New York screening of her documentary movie "Man of Two Havanas," independent filmmaker Vivien Lesnik Weisman announced that she's set up a blog within her film's website called "The Game of Peace" (http://www.manoftwohavanas.com/blog/).

Perhaps the most eye-catching blog so far has been "Cuba Sin Cadenas" (Cuba Without Chains). Administered by a Miami blogger who goes by the name LoriG, this blog (www.cubasincadenas.com) covers various news items on Cuba. Its most striking feature is the posting of detailed photos showing the destructive impact of Gustav and Ike.