What does it mean to be informed, or to inform people in Cuba?

International Conference
"Freedom of Opinion and the Press for all Cubans -  Perspectives for a Democratic Change in Cuba"
IGFM/ISHR, May 5th-6th 2006, Königstein/Ts.

Opening Speech

Frank Calzon
Center for a free Cuba (freecuba@cubacenter.org)

I am honored and humbled to be here in Germany to participate in this conference, "Freedom of Opinion and of the Press for all Cubans," sponsored by The International Society for Human Rights.  There is much that the Cuban people could learn from the collapse of communist rule in East Germany and Central Europe and your transformation to the rule of law, the reintroduction of property rights, and the role played by the press, radio and television in restoring respect for human rights.

At the outset, I would like to thank Martin Lessenthin, and the organizers of this event for what they do to defend liberty and the human spirit around the world.

I am particularly grateful for their efforts, and that of other European human rights activists, who work so tirelessly to call the attention of the international community to Castro's unspeakable abuses and for your expressions of solidarity with the people of Cuba. I would be remiss if I did not tell you the Cuban people are grateful, particularly Cuba's political prisoners, dissidents and their families for your solidarity and your efforts to help them.
 
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states clearly that "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."Today, the total and systematic denial of those rights is one of the great tragedies of Cuba's history. The Cuban people had suffered under the censorship of the Batista dictatorship and had great expectations about the Castro revolution.  Before, and during the first months of his rule, Fidel Castro spoke eloquently about the need for a free press and the sanctity of freedom of speech.  In 1959, in Montevideo, Uruguay, he said:
"I am one of those who sincerely believe in freedom, one of those who believe that everyone has a right to express what he thinks, but never in a system which denies rights to anyone that constrains intelligence that gags thoughts for any reason."

In a letter to The Chicago Tribune's Jules Dubois in February 1959, Fidel Castro wrote:
"Every person in the society of free nations  and even those that are oppressed under the heels of dictators , has a right to express his or her opinions, it is the duty of every journalist to report the news, for only with freedom of the press can there be political freedom."

By April of 1959, the maximum leader at a CMQ TV program in Havana was saying: 
"We do not persecute anyone.  If we persecute a newspaper and we shut it down, no other newspaper will feel safe, when you start to persecute a man for his political ideas, no one can feel safe; when you start to make restrictions no one can be certain of any rights."

Indeed, in the same broadcast Mr. Castro expressed his apparently heartfelt respect for freedom of expression:
"Democracy means [human] rights for everyone, let all theories be discussed, all philosophies be written, let us discuss because Man is reason and not forced. Man is intelligence and neither imposition nor whim, let us talk, let us discuss because what we seek is the freedom for all ideas to be debated, for all of us to have the right to think, to write, to meet, for all legal and proper acts.  We have to give man more opportunities to satisfy his needs, and even at a street corner where twenty people could hear him, if he wants to mimeograph a political thesis, let him print it and distribute it at the university without being taken away to the police station."

Castro's gratitude for Cuba's courageous journalists, who opposed the Batista dictatorship, is reflected in a handwritten note published by Bohemia magazine of January 1959.  He wrote:
"To Bohemia Magazine, our firmest citadel, my first greetings after victory.  I hope that it will help us in the peace just as it did in the long years of struggle."

Bohemia's publisher, Miguel Angel Quevedo, embraced Castro during a visit to the publication.  A year and a half later, by the summer of 1960, all Cuban media , magazines, newspapers, TV and radio stations , had been confiscated. Since then, they have spoken in a monotonous voice that allows no disagreement.  Mr. Quevedo went into exile in Venezuela where he committed suicide on August 12, 1969. 

With the imposition of a totalitarian regime along Stalinist lines, Cuba's civil society was neutralized; the Roman Catholic Church, family as an institution, labor unions and the Cuban media were all subsumed in Mr. Castro's grand design of a "New Man."

By June 1961, Mr. Castro was saying:
"It is very clear, what are the rights of revolutionary and non- revolutionary writers and artists. Within the revolution everything; against the revolution nothing."

Those familiar with Germany in the late 1930s will have no difficulty in appreciating who makes the determination of what is inside or outside the revolution.  The unquestionable leader maximo. 

By 1967, in a Playboy interview, Castro said:
"No counterrevolutionaries can write in our newspapers.  Against our system you are not allowed to write."

And by September 1997, Nexus magazine quoted Cuba's President for Life as follows:
"The journalist is a militant of the revolution.  The press is an instrument of the revolution. The first duty of a journalist is to support the work of the revolution."

How are Castro's dictums translated into public policy in Cuba' Please allow me to explain:

 1. All the means of information in Cuba, those for domestic consumption as well as those distributed overseas, are under the direct control of the Communist Party. The party indicates press content through its Ideological Department in the Central Committee. 

2. The principal leaders of the Ideological Department come from the political direction of the Armed Forces; for example the chief of the Ideological Department is Col. Ramon Alfonso Borges, Vice Chief is Lt. Col. Alberto Alvariño Atienzar.  The President of the Cuban Institute for Radio and Television is a lieutenant colonel.

3. The Ideological Department directs an information network that includes three national newspapers ,  Granma, Juventud Reblede (Rebel Youth) and Trabajadores (workers) , official organs of the Communist Party, Communist youth, and government labor unions.  There are also 14 provincial newspapers that report to the provincial committees of the Communist Party.  In addition there are two news agencies ,  Prensa Latina and Agencia de Informacion Nacional (National Information Agency).  There are four TV channels, two of which are set aside for education.  There is also a network of radio stations, five that cover the entire island, in addition to other local stations.  The government also sponsors several magazines.

4. The newspapers, TV and radio station directors receive systematic and detailed guidelines from the Ideological Department outlining which topics to discuss and the priorities with which they are to be dealt with. 

5.  All international news is the direct responsibility of the specialized departments of the Communist Party, which communicates its directives to the international departments of newspapers, radio, and television in light of changing circumstances.  Journalists who deal with foreign news are required to report to the Communist Party all contacts with foreign embassies in Cuba. 

6.  In regards to national news: In addition to following the instructions of the Communist Party, journalists must take into account the interests of the Administration.  For example, editors dealing with health matters receive instructions directly from the Ministry of Health as to what to publish and what sanitation campaigns to promote.  It is not possible to report on illnesses or epidemics without an expressed agreement from the Ministry. 

7.  Both the accreditation and the activities of foreign correspondents are controlled by the International Press Center which formally reports to the Foreign Ministry but which is really under the control of the Communist Party Ideological Department and the Secret Police.  All articles or reports by foreign correspondents are monitored, and they are the object of all kinds of pressures including blackmail.  It is not unusual for a foreign journalist who dares to report on the true nature of the Cuban regime or who has traveled to the island with a tourist visa, to be expelled. 

8.  The TV Program Mesa Redonda (Round Table) is under the direct supervision of Fidel Castro who chooses daily the topics to be discussed and their priorities. All other Cuban media is required to report and comment on the issues broadcast at Mesa Redonda.  This is a personal mechanism used by Castro and supersedes any guideline made by the Ideological Department. 

9.  Fidel Castro involves himself directly in the content of Cuban media to the extent of approving important articles, the Ideological Department's guidelines and front pages of Cuban dailies when traveling abroad.  There also is a standard prohibition against publishing any opinion column or editorial that is not written or approved by the Cuban leader. 

10.  In the last five years the Communist Party made it a priority to finance the creation of more than 200 Web pages targeting foreign audiences.  The Web pages are carefully supervised by the Central Committee's Ideological Department. 

11.  The information, which appears, on the Websites does not necessarily conform to information distributed within Cuba.  There are no references to economic difficulties or criticisms of social problems on Cuba's Web pages. 

12.  Access to the Internet is permitted only for diplomats, very high-ranking Communist Party leaders, a few selected intellectuals or journalists and foreign companies based on the island.  The everyday citizen is prohibited from accessing the Internet.  Guillermo Fariñas, a psychologist and independent journalist, spent several weeks on a hunger strike, which seriously impacted his health, demanding access to the Internet. It did not get access. 

13.  The Department of Information Security created by the Department of the Interior (Secret Police) to monitor use of the Internet controls the servers that provide access to approved users and suspends access whenever a violation of the government's strict rules is detected. 

14.  The official journalists who have been granted access to the Internet and a very small group of individuals who are given 30 hours monthly of Internet service at their homes, are required to sign a pledge to inform the Ministry of Interior of any violations of the Internet Ethics code. 

15.  Cellular telephones are allowed only to foreigners who in turn pay fees in U.S. dollars or E.U. euros. 

16.  Access to archives and libraries is limited.  Officially licensed journalists must request in writing access to certain materials at the National Library and also produce authorization from their editors, a restriction applied only since the 1959 revolution. 

17.  Independent journalists are persecuted and repressed in various ways including government enforcement of the Protection of National Independence Law, which is also called the Gag Law. 

18. Broadcasts on radio and television from abroad are welcomed by the Cuban people just as Europeans under communist rule welcomed foreign broadcasts. The Cuban government spends considerable resources to interfere with and jam foreign broadcasts.

19.  The Cuban government prohibits and restricts the sale and distribution of televisions and radios that can receive foreign broadcasts.  Satellite dishes are prohibited in Cuba, and although CNN reports from Havana, Cubans are not allowed to watch CNN.

20.  A tragic example of the high level of censorship and repression was the sentencing of 27 independent journalists to prison for terms ranging from 14 to 27 years in prison. This occurred in the government's crackdown of 2003.

In view of the above, I would like to urge human rights organizations everywhere -- particularly those dedicated to the defense of freedom of the press -- and professors in schools of journalism to reenergize their efforts demanding the immediate and unconditional release of independent Cuban journalists and other political prisoners.

Finally I pray that it will not be too long before the Cuban people will be able to benefit from the rule of law and an uncensored media.  When that day comes, the Cuban people and the Cuban government will join the Germans, the Czechs, the Slovaks and others in denouncing censorship anywhere in the world.