DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD | Giving citizens a voice
19 March 2008
Independent Journalists Struggle to Survive in Cuba
Press freedom group reports on fifth anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring
Washington -- Five years after Cuba’s communist regime arrested and sentenced 27 journalists to prison, a small, brave force of independent journalists continues to work in the Caribbean nation.
The global press advocacy group, Reporters Without Borders, says in a new report that the “sad” fifth anniversary of what was dubbed Black Spring brings “some good news: independent journalists, who are more numerous, braver and better organized, have not given up the struggle.”
The Paris-based group adds, however, that Cuban prisons “still hold 23 journalists among the some 240 jailed prisoners of conscience” in the country.
The group said in a March 14 press release that the report stresses that those journalists not in prison face “extreme difficulties” in working in a country “in which the state has a monopoly on news, printing and broadcasting.” Reporters Without Borders calls Cuba the world’s second-largest prison for journalists, after China.
The press release stated that the Cuban regime of Raúl Castro is taking a “first step” toward allowing more freedom for independent journalists following Cuba’s February 15 release of an independent journalist and three other dissidents. Reporters Without Borders said that Cuba’s March 13 announcement of the lifting of restrictions on individual acquisition of computer equipment “also represents a very positive step.”
Several Cuba experts contacted by America.gov had varying reactions to these developments.
Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, is decidedly negative on the possibility of press freedom in Cuba.
“I would see any openings” for press freedom if the Cuban regime allowed independent newspapers or independent radio stations to function, and if the Catholic Church was allowed to have an independent newspaper, said Suchlicki.
Suchlicki said the Cuban regime maintains a cynical policy of arresting one independent journalist while allowing three others to be freed from jail, or vice versa -- arresting three journalists and freeing one from jail. The release of a few journalists “doesn’t mean anything” for press freedom, he said.
The Cuban regime is releasing journalists, he said, to improve its image abroad. Sometimes journalists are released after they become very ill in prison or have completed a long prison sentence, Suchlicki said.
Such limited steps in releasing a few dissidents are “just to keep the masses quiet,” Suchlicki said. Terming the report by Reporters Without Borders “premature,” he added that he saw no evidence press freedom is improving in Cuba.
Suchlicki said the Cuban government’s allowing its citizens to have access to computers, but no access to the Internet or to short-wave radios, has little significance. An individual working on a computer without access to the Internet is like “working on an electric typewriter,” he said.
Cubans are allowed to access an internal Cuban online network called the “intranet,” which is tightly controlled by the Cuban government, Suchlicki said. “Not only is it expensive to get on the Internet,” even if the Cuban regime allowed such connections, but very few Cubans can even afford to buy computers, said Suchlicki.
FORMER U.S. OFFICIAL DISCUSES CHANCE FOR ALTERNATIVE PRESS
Vicki Huddleston, a visiting fellow on foreign policy for the Washington-based Brookings Institution, said Cuba now is a one-party state opposed to democracy but that “it will evolve.” Huddleston said it is unclear to what extent the Castro regime will permit an alternative press to operate in Cuba.
Huddleston, principal officer of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1999 until 2002, also said the Cuban government’s recent comments and actions “seem to indicate that the regime may take the risk and allow a more open Internet” in the country because that action could generate revenue.
Huddleston said Spain has admitted into its country a number of dissidents, after they were released from Cuba’s prisons. She expressed hope that more Cuban dissidents would be released if the European Union (EU) and other groups open talks with Cuba.
A group called Project Syndicate, led by Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, wrote a newspaper article published March 11 calling on the EU to “denounce human rights violations in Cuba” and to demand “immediate release of all prisoners of conscience.”
Benoît Hervieu, head of the Americas section of Reporters Without Borders and author of the report, says dissidents face the problem of Internet access because there are few Internet cafes in Cuba. Another obstacle is the very high price of an Internet connection there, he said.
Hervieu said he based his report on the findings of a special correspondent that Reporters Without Borders sent to Cuba. The Castro regime bars the press group from entering the country.
The press release and full text of Cuba, No surrender by independent journalists, five years on from black spring are available on the Reporters Without Borders Web site.
Project Syndicate’s article “Our Stand Against Castro's Cuba” is available on the New York Sun Web site.
On March 18, the United States called for an unconditional release of prisoners of conscience in Cuba. For details see the full text of the U.S. statement on the anniversary of Cuba’s Black Spring.
