Change is coming to Cuban media
CUBA’S state-owned media appears to be on the path to improvement. Since taking over from his brother Fidel as President, Raul Castro has encouraged the media to become more active and critical and to delve into subjects that were hitherto off-limits, a change of climate that was underlined in July when the Cuban Journalists Union (UPEC) held its first congress in nine years.
Reporters and journalists from all over Cuba gathered for three days in July at the Havana Convention Centre to discuss information policy, the training of journalists and salaries.
Attitudes are changing on the island where journalism has meant being an official mouthpiece for the government.
The party’s daily newspaper Granma produced a special issue with a page of cartoons sending up the media. One showed a journalist at a computer with the caption: “He’s hooked up to the internet but he’s still disconnected from reality.” In another, a government official remarks to a reporter: “To show you that I cooperate with the press, I’m going to give you a list of the questions you have to ask me.”
Top party leaders, including Raul Castro, attended the conference and heard speakers calling for greater analysis and a critical approach, for more information and more transparency from government.
Maria Julia Mayoral, a reporter for Granma, complained of problems in covering the National Assembly: “It’s alarming that we can’t write about what’s discussed in debates,” she said, adding that the reporters have a great deal of information but are told not to use it. Frank Gonzalez, the director of the Prensa Latina news agency, said all information that did not jeopardise state security ought to be made available to the public.
The congress ended with an address from Cuba’s Vice President and party ideology chief Esteban Lazo who emphasized the importance of implementing the Communist Party’s recommendations that the media “reflect Cuban reality and contribute to confronting its problems”.
It now appears up to journalists to break with their past role as ideologues and put a more pragmatic journalism into practice.