Cuba supports press freedom

[Mika]

Cuba supports press freedom

“You cannot kill truth by murdering journalists,” said Tubal Páez, president of the Journalists Union of Cuba. One hundred and fifty Cuban and South American journalists, ambassadors, politicians and foreign guests gathered at the Jose Marti International Journalist Institute to honor the 50th anniversary of the death of Carlos Bastidas Arguello — the last journalist killed in Cuba. Carlos Bastidas was only 23 years of age when he was assassinated by Fulgencia Batista’s secret police after having visited Fidel Castro’s forces in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Edmundo Bastidas, Carlos’ brother, told about how a river of change flowed from the Maestra (Teacher) mountains, symbolized by his brother’s efforts to help secure a new future for Cuba.

The celebration in Havana was held in honor of World Press Freedom Day, which is observed every year in May. World Press Freedom day was proclaimed by the UN in 1993 to honor journalists who have lost their lives reporting the news, and to defend media freedom worldwide.

During my five days in Havana, I met with dozens of journalists, communication studies faculty and students, union representatives and politicians. The underlying theme of my visit was to determine the state of media freedom in Cuba and to build a better understanding between media democracy activists in the U.S. and those in Cuba.

I toured the two main radio stations in Havana, Radio Rebelde and Radio Havana. Both have Internet access to multiple global news sources including CNN, Reuters, Associated Press and BBC with several newscasters pulling stories for public broadcast. Over 90 municipalities in Cuba have their own locally-run radio stations, and journalists report local news from every province.

During the course of several hours in each station I was interviewed on the air about media consolidation and censorship in the US and was able to ask journalists about censorship in Cuba as well. Of the dozens I interviewed all said that they have complete freedom to write or broadcast any stories they choose. This was a far cry from the Stalinist media system so often depicted by U.S. interests.

Nonetheless it did become clear that Cuban journalists share a common sense of a continuing counter-revolutionary threat by U.S.-financed Cuban-Americans living in Miami. This is not an entirely unwarranted feeling in that many hundreds of terrorist actions against Cuba have occurred with U.S. backing over the past 50 years. In addition to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, these attacks include the blowing up of a Cuban Airlines plane in 1976 resulting in the deaths of 73 people, the starting in 1981 of an epidemic of dengue fever that killed 158 people, and several hotel bombings in the 1990s, one of which resulted in the death of an Italian tourist.

In the context of this external threat, Cuban journalists quietly acknowledge that some self-censorship will undoubtedly occur regarding news stories that could be used by the “enemy” against the Cuban people. Nonetheless, Cuban journalists strongly value freedom of the press and there was no evidence of overt restriction or government control.

Cuban journalists complain that the U.S. corporate media is biased and refuses to cover the positive aspects of socialism in Cuba. Unknown to most Americans are the facts that Cuba is the number one organic country in the world, has an impressive health care system with a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S., trains doctors from all over the world, and has enjoyed a 43 percent increase in GDP over the past three years.

Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly, discussed bias in the U.S. media. “How often do you see Gore Vidal interviewed on the U.S. media?” he asked. Vidal has recently said that the U.S. is in its "worst phase in history." “Perhaps Cuba uses corporate news to excess,” Alarcon said, “Cuban journalists need to link more to independent news sources in the U.S.” Alarcon went on to say that Cuba allows CNN, AP and the Chicago Tribune to maintain offices in Cuba, but that the U.S. refuses to allow Cuban journalists to work in the United States.

As the Cuban socialist system improves, the U.S. does everything it can to artificially force Cold War conditions by funding terrorist attacks, maintaining an economic boycott, launching a new anti-terrorism Caribbean naval fleet, and increasingly limiting U.S. citizen travel to Cuba. It is time to reverse this Cold War isolationist position, honor the Cuban people's choice of a socialist system and build a positive working relationship between journalists in support of media democracy in both our countries.

Peter Phillips is a professor of sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored, a media research organization. He traveled to Cuba as an invited guest of the Journalists Union of Cuba, May 10-15, 2008.

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[Bacchus39]

1. thanks for the joke

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/02/19/cuba18102.htm

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Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Abusive Machinery Remains Intact
Major Obstacles Remain for Human Rights
(Washington, DC, February 19, 2008) – Despite Fidel Castro’s resignation today, Cuba’s abusive legal and institutional mechanisms continue to deprive Cubans of their basic rights, Human Rights Watch said today. The counterproductive US embargo policy continues to give the Cuban government a pretext for human rights violations.


“Even if Castro no longer calls the shots, the repressive machinery he constructed over almost half a century remains fully intact,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Until that changes, it’s unlikely there will be any real progress on human rights in Cuba.”

For almost five decades, Cuba has restricted nearly all avenues of political dissent. Cuban citizens have been systematically deprived of their fundamental rights to free expression, privacy, association, assembly, movement, and due process of law. Tactics for enforcing political conformity have included police warnings, surveillance, short-term detentions, house arrests, travel restrictions, criminal prosecutions, and politically motivated dismissals from employment.

Cuba’s legal and institutional structures have been at the root of its rights violations. The rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, movement, and the press are strictly limited under Cuban law. By criminalizing enemy propaganda, the spreading of “unauthorized news,” and insult to patriotic symbols, the government curbs freedom of speech under the guise of protecting state security. The courts are not independent; they undermine the right to fair trial by restricting the right to a defense, and frequently fail to observe the few due process rights available to defendants under domestic law.

Freedom of Expression and Assembly
The Cuban government maintains a media monopoly on the island, ensuring that freedom of expression is virtually nonexistent. Although a small number of independent journalists manage to write articles for foreign websites or publish underground newsletters, the risks associated with these activities are considerable. According to Reporters Without Borders, 25 journalists were serving prison terms in Cuba as of July 2007, most of them charged with threatening “the national independence and economy of Cuba.” This makes the country second only to China for the number of journalists in prison.

Access to information via the internet is also highly restricted in Cuba. In late August 2006 the dissident and independent journalist Guillermo Fariñas ended a seven-month hunger strike in opposition to the regime’s internet policy. He began the strike after the Cuban authorities shut down his email access, which he had been using to send dispatches abroad describing attacks on dissidents and other human rights abuses.

Freedom of assembly is severely restricted in Cuba and political dissidents are generally prohibited from meeting in large groups. This was evident in mid-September 2006 during the 14th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana, when the Cuban government issued a ban on all gatherings that might damage “the image” of the city.

http://hrw.org/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/cuba17767.htm

[EFerrari]

3. "In June 2007, bowing to political pressure,

the UN Human Rights Council terminated the mandate of the UN expert charged with reporting on human rights conditions in Cuba."

Please, this report is a joke.

[Mika]

4. Some people say.

If "dissidents" and "independent journalists" paid by the US gov (and US based anti Cuba terrorist groups) file reports that HRW republishes, then it must be true. :eyes:

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/cuba/Cuba996-01.htm#P400_38494

The Cuban government has not allowed Human Rights Watch to return to Cuba since 1995.

HRW has nothing other than second hand uncorroborated US bought-and-paid-for yellow "journalism".

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mika, do you remember Herbert L. Matthews, who covered Cuba for the New York Times

in the 1950's?

I found information about him in research around 2000, and started posting some of it at the US-Cuba Relations message board at the old CNN site. I posted articles he had written on young people being swept up from the street by death squads, like Rolando Masferrer's Tigres, tortured, mutilated, and hung in trees, thrown into the streets, countryside, etc.

He also noted that Fulgencio Batista had shut down all outside media coming into Cuba, and had it censored, so when it was sold in stores, parts Batista didn't want were actually blacked out. He mentioned Batista shut down the local press altogether for a while.

A couple of years later, still sifting around for info. on Matthews, I discovered right-wing idiots had started attacking Herbert L. Matthews. Yep, ATTACKING him. Trying to totally anhiliate his reputation DECADES after he had written as a reporter. (A little leftover Joe McCarthy filth.) They have called him everything in the world by now. I happen to know how hard it had been to find a WORD on Matthews when I started researching him. Somehow a new-found interest suddenly manifested and leaped to life almost spontaneously.

I just noted a moment ago looking at a search page, that even the assholes at Free Republic have penned their pathetic opinions of his journalism, as well. Didn't go there to look at their scrawlings, don't really have that much time to waste, not interestesd.

Well, the man LIVED AND WORKED IN CUBA and he surely agreed with what you've said about what Batista did, and more. I wouldn't worry at all if losers attempt to devaluate your contributions. As you know, it only takes a while until ambitious, concerned people read enough of their stuff to come to their own conclusions, which is as it should be.

It may be close to the end of the reign of terror by the scum of the earth. It will have been worth this very long wait when it happens.

[Zorro]

5. Press freedom, Cuban style

ARTICLE 53. Citizens have freedom of speech and of the press in keeping with the objectives of socialist society. Material conditions for the exercise of that right are provided by the fact that the press, radio, television, cinema, and other mass media are state or social property and can never be private property. This assures their use at exclusive service of the working people and in the interests of society.

The law regulated the exercise of those freedoms.

[Mika]

6. Imagine that. Citizen controlled press, instead of corporate/fascist owned press.

You wouldn't know the range of press in Cuba - because you've never been there.

There are many thousands of local & community newspapers reporting on all things Cuba, some pro government and some criticizing the government, from serious political publications to music, arts, environmental, to gossip rags. You wouldn't know that - because you've never been there.

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[Zorro]

7. Ah yes. A government controlled press

That's the way to get out the truth.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Mika]

8. Your comment belies your complete ignorance.

The only way on could believe that the government produces all of the thousands of publications printed all over Cuba is be completely ignorant about the goings-on in Cuba.

Posted by Zorro --> HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Hoo boy. Kids at the keyboard again.


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[Zorro]

9. CUBA: FIVE YEARS TOO MANY, NEW GOVERNMENT MUST RELEASE JAILED DISSIDENTS

<snip>

On the 5th anniversary of the largest crackdown against political opponents in Cuba, Amnesty International today called on the new Cuban authorities to immediately release the 58 dissidents still being held in jails across the country.

“Five years is five years too many. The only crime committed by these 58 is the peaceful exercise of their fundamental freedoms. Amnesty International considers them to be prisoners of conscience. They must be released immediately and unconditionally,” said Kerrie Howard, Deputy Director for Amnesty International’s Americas Programme.

In February 2008, Amnesty International welcomed the release of four prisoners of conscience and Cuba’s signing of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...

<snip>

Read more at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/cuba-five-years-too-many-new-government-must-release-jailed-dissidents-2

Seems as if Amnesty International has a few things to say about freedom of expression and press freedom in Cuba.

But they're no doubt completely ignorant about the goings-on in Cuba, also.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Mika]

10. How can there report be independently verified>

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/americas/caribbean/cuba#report

AI last visited Cuba in 1988 and has not been allowed into the country since.

Like HRW, they were not allowed bak to Cuba for collaborating with groups funded by the declared enemies of the State of Cuba.

Their reports come from Miami based terrorist groups & the US gov paid so called "independent journalists". Paid-for bullshit, like Judi Miller of the NY Times, or the Pentagon paid contributers to news reports, or Armstrong Williams in the US.

I saw plenty of DUers lamenting this type of activity (US gov paid-for propaganda), but yet fully endorsing it and using it as reference source material when it comes to Cuba. Worse yet, criticizing those who point this out.


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[magbana]

11. Right on, Mika! Both AI and HRW are treacherous organizations

that rarely come out on the correct side. Cuba had every reason to tell both these organizations to stay away because various sanctions against Cuba were partly predicated on their lies. When it came to Haiti, both AI and HRW remained silent about the atrocities until some prominent international human rights figures banged them over the head. Yet, the response was tepid. One of the most disappointing aspects of my work on Haiti was dealing with these two organizations.

Oh yeah, don't forget that shortly after the film "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" came out, AI was suppposed to have showed the film at an AI film fest in Vancouver. Then they decided the film was TOO controversial.and pulled it from the program. Since the overthrow in Haiti was largely patterned after Venezuela, AI had the opportunity to make the documentary about the overthrow in Venezuela front and center, helping others to understand what would happen in Haiti later.

[Zorro]

16. I knew you'd say Amnesty International had no credibility

Apparently the only organizations with credibility are the ones whose reports the Cuban government sanctions and approves.

And that's what you call press freedom.

You must have been born a Republican.

[Mika]

20. They have no credibility on their Cuba reporting. It comes via US paid anti Cuba antagonists.

As far as their reporting goes where they do their own 1st hand reporting, I would tend to lent it a little more credibility.

But neither HRW or AI do their own reporting in Cuba as they are not allowed back in, because they were collaborating with groups paid by the self-declared enemies of Cuba, and they still are.

It would be like HRW or AI getting and republishing the reports on the USA from the Weather Underground in the 60's as if they were the definitive source, or an Al Queda group paid by the Taliban in these times.




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[Bacchus39]

19. if Cuba had a "free press" then it could be verified now couldn't it?

a free press requires that information can both be obtained and the people have access to it.

[EFerrari]

12. 58? There are 270+ in the American prison camp at Guantanamo. n/t

[Mika]

13. And quite a number have died while being tortured by the US.

Links -->here<--



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[EFerrari]

14. Last week I read that 8 detainess are confirmed to have died in custody.

More than 80 detainees have been confirmed to have died in the detention camps for undocumented workers in roughly the same period.

[roody]

15. I call DU meetup in Cuba. August.

Please reply.

[EFerrari]

17. I'd love to and can't this year.

:(

[roody]

18. If no one joins me, I can wait until Cmas vacation

or in one year.