Cuba\'s media curbs spark ingenuity

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Cuba's media curbs spark ingenuity

By Michael Voss

BBC News, Havana

The France-based organisation Reporters Without Borders has consistently placed Cuba near the bottom of its global league table in terms of press freedom.

Cuba limits access to the internet

Communist Cuba currently ranks 165th. Only North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea are below it, while Burma, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia are considered slightly more open.

The area around Revolution Square in Havana is where much of the power resides in Cuba.

The powerful defence and interior ministries have their offices here, as does the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It is also home to the country's two main daily newspapers.

Granma is the official paper of the Communist Party; its sister publication, Juventud Rebelde, belongs to the Union of Young Communists.

Both make fairly dull reading. On the inside pages, Juventud Rebelde will carry more articles on sexual and educational issues as well as science and technology, but both tend to share the same lead stories.

The same letter had also been the lead story, read in full, on the previous night's television news programme.

Rogelio Polanco is director and editor-in-chief of Juventud Rebelde. He argues that in communist Cuba a journalist's role is to defend the revolution and to work for a better society.

"Every day we publish a lot of things which are critical of society. What we are not going to publish are things which give tools to our enemies to overthrow our government."

In many ways, it is Cuba's siege mentality that defines its attitude to criticism and internal opposition.

Most Cubans today have grown up living under the strict US trade and financial embargo, which has been in place since shortly after Fidel Castro came to power following the revolution in 1959.

President George W Bush has also set up the post of "transition co-ordinator" in Washington with a multi-million dollar fund to ensure that communism does not continue following Fidel Castro's eventual demise.

'Mercenaries'

One of the reasons that Cuba is rated so poorly by Reporters Without Borders was the arrest in 2003 of 26 independent journalists along with some 50 dissidents.

Official media carries frequent articles from Fidel Castro

All had been involved in reform efforts known as the Varela Project, which had raised signatures calling for a referendum on greater democracy.

According to the government, they were all counter-revolutionaries, imprisoned for being mercenaries in the pay of the United States, a charge they deny.

Following the arrests, Miriam Leiva formed a group called Women in White, which still holds a rally every Sunday to highlight the plight of the people she calls prisoners of conscience.

Her husband, Oscar Chepe, was sentenced to 20 years in jail, although later released on health grounds. Both continue to write and speak out, though their work is rarely seen in Cuba.

"There are very few independent journalists and we are heavily repressed," Ms Leiva told me.

""We can't publish in Cuba and we have to post or publish our works abroad. Here our works are passed around by hand."

Internet

The internet is tightly controlled in Cuba.

According to the Cuban government, the US trade embargo means that Cuba is unable to access the main undersea cables which run not far from its coast.

Instead, all internet access here has to be via satellite, which is both expensive and generally very slow.

The authorities here argue that regulating internet usage is a democratic way of sharing limited resources.

Critics such as Amnesty International call it an attempt to shield Cubans from alternative views.

Cubans are allowed to access the internet through their work places in government offices, hospitals, universities and state-run media.

Foreign companies can also use the internet but private individuals are not allowed to have it at home.

But Cubans are famed for their inventiveness and many have found ways to get around the restrictions.

The Women in White stage regular protests

Many find foreigners who are working in Cuba who do not need internet connections at home.

The Cuban then opens an account in their name but pays the monthly bill. It is in hard currency and doesn't come cheap.

"People are trying to find ways to be in contact with the world," explained Juan, a teacher, who asked for his real name not to be used.

He and a friend have saved enough to pay for 15 hours each a month via a foreigner's internet account. He believes the sacrifice is worth it.

"The more information that we have the more decisions we can make about our lives and our way of living," he said.

It is now almost a year and a half since Fidel Castro underwent emergency stomach surgery and handed temporary power to his brother, Raul.

Since then, acting President Raul Castro has called for the Cuban press to be more critical about the country's shortcomings, at least on the economy.

In early December, the government also announced that Cuba would finally sign the two main United Nations human rights accords. On paper at least these guarantee the right to a free press.

And on 17 December, a message from Fidel Castro was read out on state-run television, hinting at his possible retirement.

Cuba is in a period of transition. But so far no-one knows just where it will lead.