Global Journalist

The Cold War Within

By Nicolás A. Jiménez Posted Aug 9 2010

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Although executions are uncommon in Cuba, the government jails more journalists per capita than any other country in the world. The island’s independent journalists, whose work is illegal in Cuba, offer the only alternative to state-run media.

These journalists report on what the state has tried to mask. As renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez said, “Independent journalists, bloggers, and other people who have been communicating information—including those who do it without some journalistic task in mind—have made it possible to show Cuba’s true face.”

Right then, as if the phrase “Cuba’s true face” were some state security agent’s cue to intervene, my phone call with Sánchez was cut short by what sounded like a third party holding down one of the buttons on a phone. Sometimes the sound would stop, only to start again when I asked, “Is anyone there?”

Although the Cuban regime resorting to tactics like this might seem ridiculous, they’re part of an effective strategy to silence independent media. Journalists are left not only without access to the outside world but also without the kind of access to local independent media that, in other places, seems commonplace.

But technology is changing the way Cubans do journalism. Bloggers are finding ways to circumvent government controls on the Internet, and some are using their cell phones to break news through social networking and micro-blogging sites.

The death of Cuban political prisoner and hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo sparked a sequence of events that brought global attention to Cuba’s human rights situation. When Zapata died, other dissidents (including independent journalist Guillermo “Coco” Fariñas) launched their own hunger strikes. The regime began to crack down more harshly on the Ladies in White, a group of women advocating for the release of their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers who were arrested in the “Black Spring” crackdown of March 2003.

The spike in opposition activities also brought more consumers to Cuba’s underground press. Almost instantly, Sánchez posted a video statement from Zapata Tamayo’s mother. Claudia Cadelo and Ciro Díaz uploaded interviews with opposition leaders on the blog Octavo Cerco. Other journalists mobilized their readers to sign a petition condemning the Cuban government for allowing Zapata Tamayo’s death.

Some of the problems independent journalists face in Cuba are out of their hands. Other problems, however, can be solved before significant changes are made in government policy.

Journalism or Opposition?
Although efforts have been made to change their rhetoric, Cuba’s independent media blur the line between journalism and opposition.

According to Janisset Rivero, adjunct national secretary at the Miami-based Cuban Democratic Directorate, independent journalism in Cuba got its post-revolutionary start in the early ‘90s. Before that, dissident media was limited mostly to the public declarations of overtly political organizations.

“Independent journalism in Cuba isn’t a job; it’s a mission,” Rivero says.

It might be because of this “mission” that the Cuban government gets away with making blanket accusations about independent journalists, erroneously claiming that they are “mercenaries” being paid by foreign governments.

In an interview with left-leaning blog The South Journal, Cuban journalist Enrique Ubieta made his case against the “independent” label for dissident journalists:

“Now if you make a personal blog and post no political articles—since you are more interested in other topics like stamp collection, for instance—you are termed as pro-government, too. But if you … write against the Cuban Revolution, then you are an independent blogger.

“Would anyone consider the Cuban Revolution as the ‘official’ thing in today’s world and Capitalism as its ‘alternative’? As you well know, it is the other way around: those who defend the ruling position in the world (Capitalism) and have access to its huge media and financial resources are the real ‘oficialistas.’ Cubans who support the Revolution are the independent ones.”

Does being in a global, ideological minority make you the “alternative” when your newspaper or magazine is fully funded by the only legally recognized political party in your country? Either way, Ubieta’s argument demonstrates that it’s best for Cuban journalists to define their independence and rethink the approach they take to creating and spreading alternative media.

In a Cuba without independent journalists, there is no government watchdog. But it’s time these journalists realize their products need to change to address the activist perception if they’re ever to enter the mainstream, both in Cuba and internationally.

What is Independence?
Support from foreign governments (and organizations that receive government funding) can also make it easy for the Castro regime to get away with applying the “mercenary” label to anyone who doesn’t toe the party line.

“This is a construction of the Castro government,” Rivero says. “We haven’t had one occasion of a federally funded institution saying ‘you have to do this’ or ‘you have to do that.’”

Government-funded organizations tend to be the only significant sources of support accessible to Cuba’s independent press. For many Cuban journalists, not taking that support (even if indirectly) means not doing journalism at all.

“We need to get private support for them,” Rivero says, adding that if government money is all that’s available, it’s necessary to take it. “If you don’t have money to feed your kids, don’t you need this outside help?”

Still, journalist Luis Felipe Rojas, who writes a blog called Cruzar Las Alambradas from San Germán and is a contributor to Diario De Cuba (an offshoot of Cuba Encuentro), would like to see independent media in Cuba become less dependent on government money. He said technology is already making small steps possible.

“Independent journalism is progressively becoming something more aptly described as citizen journalism,” Rojas says. He claims it’s thanks to increasing access to cell phones, blogs and other tools that “journalism is slowly shedding the ‘independent’ label.”

Whether that’s true depends on what is meant by independence, but it’s clear that new tools are making it possible for journalists to shed their dependence on the support of foreign governments.

Training and Tools
To legally practice journalism in Cuba, a journalist must obtain a journalism degree and be a member of the Unión de Periodistas de Cuba. Yet access to Cuban higher education—as well as certain jobs—is dependent on party loyalty, so independent journalists are disadvantaged when it comes to professional training.

In Havana, access to foreigners and technology have enabled Yoani Sánchez to establish a training program called Academia Blogger (Blogger Academy).

This tends to be difficult, if not impossible, to pull off in the more isolated areas far from Havana.

“[A training program] would be something new here. We have practically nothing here [by way of training opportunities],” says Holguín-based journalist Caridad Caballero Batista. “Many people here want to get involved in independent media and don’t because they feel lost and don’t know how.”

Distance from Havana means distance from critical resources. But Caballero Batista, who was the journalist in touch with Orlando Zapata Tamayo when he was in prison on his hunger strike, says that wouldn’t stop her from trying to take advantage of training opportunities.

“I’m going crazy for that sort of thing. In that respect, we’re practically illiterate here,” she says.

The International Media Center is the only organization that regularly conducts journalism training in Cuba. Headed by John Virtue, the IMC trains Cuban journalists via video conference. IMC instructors in the U.S., Costa Rica and Argentina meet with journalist trainees at the U.S. Interest Section in Havana.

The IMC has been training journalists in Latin America for 20 years. In 2003, Virtue traveled to Cuba to conduct a workshop. It would be the first and last in-person session the IMC held in Cuba.

Virtue says that, despite his taking steps to make himself seem like an ordinary tourist, “[Cuban authorities] knew all along why I was there because one of the journalists was a state security agent.”

Cuban authorities interrupted Virtue’s plans. Before he left, trainee Manuel Vidorrio tried to reassure Virtue.

Vidorrio later suggested that workshops be held at the residence of the U.S. Interest Section’s chief of mission in order to be able to accommodate more people. The chief of mission agreed.

Four days after that training session in 2003, the Cuban government arrested 75 dissidents. Among them were 27 journalists, many of whom had been at the IMC workshop. Vidorrio revealed himself as a state security agent when he testified against the journalists in trials that brought some sentences of nearly 30 years.

“The darned thing is that a month ago, Vidorrio asked me to be his friend on Facebook,” Virtue says.

Where to go from here
Cubans don’t tend to have access to models of what a mainstream newsroom looks like. The regime’s control mechanisms keep them from being aware of what legal, ethical and stylistic standards have been developed in other parts of the world. Exposing Cubans to these models can go a long way in directing their efforts.

Perhaps most important, though, is that aid to Cuban journalists include efforts to make their work more accessible to their own communities in Cuba and in the international mainstream. Whether it’s finding more practical distribution methods addressing the prohibitive costs of printing and Internet access or new product models addressing aversion to dissident or activist media, there are solutions that bring independent media into the mainstream.

That’s why technology and independence should be at the core of efforts to aid journalists in Cuba. Cuban journalists need their international peers to help bring the island’s media into the 21st century. Otherwise, opportunities to advance the role of independent media in Cuba, such as those created by the death of Zapata Tamayo and increased interest in opposition groups like the Ladies in White, will pass by.