Frank Calzón, former director of the Center for a Free Cuba, responds to an article in the official press and describes the path followed by the censorship of journalism in Cuba since 1959.
14ymedio , 10/05/2020
Here it is missing, gentlemen, a voice ...
Frank Calzón , Miami | 05/10/2020
In an article recently published in Cubadebate and other official media, the journalist Ricardo Ronquillo accuses the international organization Reporters Without Borders of being a liar, which is dedicated to defending the freedom of the press and imprisoned (or murdered) journalists anywhere on the planet.
Ronquillo writes well, without misspellings, although following the guidelines of the totalitarian style, including personal attacks and accusations of various kinds, without presenting in any case any evidence. The journalist explains that the Cuban Constitution (of 2019) "recognizes freedom of thought and conscience" (article 54), along with freedom of the press, but does not mention that all the rights listed in the Constitution are conditioned on compulsory acceptance of the postulates of the only political party allowed, the Communist Party of Cuba, and of the irrefutable and lifelong irreversibility of the socialist system, according to article 4.
Article 9 reads: "Strict compliance with socialist legality is everyone's obligation." And article 45 indicates that the exercise of people's rights "is only limited by the rights of others, collective security, general welfare, respect for public order, the Constitution and the law." The word "socialist" is implicit in everything: socialist security, socialist public order, socialist Constitution, socialist laws.
It is regrettable that official journalists know so little about the history of Cuba and the revolution. Because, as one of my teachers at the Institute # 1 in Havana said, a few blocks from the statue of José Martí in Central Park, "here, gentlemen, there is a voice."
I think Cubadebate will agree with me that it is impossible to analyze contemporary Cuba without taking into account Commander Fidel Castro's thinking. Let me quote Fidel.
In a letter dated February 14, 1959, addressed to the American journalist Jules Dubois, Castro told him that "the duty of every journalist is to report what happens, since only with freedom of the press can there be political freedom"
In a letter dated February 14, 1959, addressed to the American journalist Jules Dubois, Castro told him that "the duty of every journalist is to report what happens, since only with freedom of the press can there be political freedom."
On April 2 of the same year, on CMQ-TV's Ante la Prensa program , before the regime confiscated all the media, the Maximum Leader assured: "We do not persecute anyone. If we persecute a newspaper and close it down ... ah, when you start closing a newspaper, no newspaper can feel safe, when you start to persecute a man for his political ideas, no one can feel safe; when you start making restrictions, you will not You can feel secure no right. "
In the same program that thousands of Cubans viewed with approval, he also said: "Democracy is a right for some and for others, that all theories, all the preaching that is written be discussed, because man is reason and not force, the man is intelligence and not imposition, and not whim ... let it be spoken, let it be discussed, that we are looking for that freedom where all ideas are discussed, in which we all have the right to think, freedom to write, to meet, to all legal and lawful acts ... And even if it is in a corner and where twenty people hear it, if you want to mimeograph a political thesis, print it and distribute it at the University, without being taken to the station of police".
Fidel was right that day.
Just a few months later, Castro put aside those ideas inspired by Martí's thought. On June 30, 1961, at a meeting with the intellectuals at the National Library, sitting behind a table where he had put his gun, he announced: "I think this is quite clear. What are the rights of writers and revolutionary or non-revolutionary artists? Within the Revolution everything, against the Revolution, no right. "
Later their rhetoric would become clearly Stalinist. In the June 1967 Playboy magazine he said: "No, a counter-revolutionary cannot write in our newspapers, against our system you cannot write." Years later, in September 1997, News added: "... the journalist is a member of the Revolution, the press is an instrument of the Revolution and the journalist's first duty is to support and defend the Revolution."
Years later, in September 1997 in 'News' Fidel Castro said: "... the journalist is a member of the Revolution, the press is an instrument of the Revolution and the journalist's first duty is to support and defend the Revolution"
Despite what Cubadebate and Juventud Rebelde insist on repeating , the truth is that Reporters Without Borders' criticism in their defense of press freedom is not limited to governments hostile to the United States. This is demonstrated by his reports on Saudi Arabia, Washington's main ally, on Vietnam, China and Turkey. And since 2018, RSF has strongly criticized several statements by President Donald Trump questioning the coverage of his Administration by several very important North American newspapers.
In its latest report, RSF lists Cuba among the ten countries with the least press freedom in the world, and points to three countries on our continent as the worst violators of press freedom: Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba.
Today, with the severe implementation of Decree Law 370, harassment, mistreatment, arrests, and confiscation of work media against independent journalists in Cuba have intensified. The IAPA, the OAS, Reporters Without Borders, the CDJ, the United Nations, and how many organizations exist in the world for the protection of a free press have condemned Cuba for these violations. The continuity of which President Miguel Díaz-Canel speaks is nothing other than the continuity of those human rights violations that began 60 years ago. The Cuban government officials can no longer cover the sun with a finger: the whole world condemns them.
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Frank Calzón is a Cuban, political scientist by profession and human rights activist.