Havana    -   The Cuban government on Wednesday denounced the suspension of multiple official media Twitter accounts during a live TV address by President Miguel Diaz-Canel about the communist island’s fuel shortage.

“Twitter suspended the accounts for Cuba’s main media” while he spoke on the prime time Mesa Redonda show, the Cuban foreign ministry tweeted. “In an obviously arranged operation, attempts were made to limit the pronouncements of the revolutionaries who support the truth,” the ministry added.

At the moment Diaz-Canel started speaking, the Mesa Redonda Twitter account was effectively suspended, as well as the accounts of Canal Caribe channel and other official media outlets, including Granma newspaper and Radio Rebelde.

Cuba is regularly criticized by watchdogs for exerting excessive control over the internet. According to New York-based Freedom House, blogs and websites critical of the government are frequently blocked.

Only a small percentage of the Cuban population can access the global internet, as opposed to the government-controlled national internet, Freedom House said.

In his address, Diaz-Canel said the “low availability of diesel” will affect transport, merchandise distribution and electricity generation.