In the fall of 1994, Cuba saw
the birth of a unique slice of Civil Society -- an independent
journalism movement that sought to sidestep the Communist
government’s monopoly on information. Fifteen years
later, the movement remains surprisingly lively despite constant
repression, difficulties disseminating its reports and financial
hardships.
Founding the movement were veteran journalists who had defected
from the official media, among them Raul Rivero of Prensa
Latina, Yndamiro Restano of Radio Rebelde; and Rafael Solano
of Radio Taino. Initially, government officials gave faint
hints of tolerance. “We’re experimenting, testing
how much room we can allow,” one official told me in
1995.
The peaceful dissident movement expanded swiftly with help
from several factors: Direct US-Cuba phone calls became possible,
ending the need for more expensive third-country routing when
journalists had to read their reports out loud during tape-recorded
calls from Miami. The Internet’s expansion made it easier
to distribute their reports around the world. And Cuban exiles
such as philanthropist Elena Diaz-Verson Amos, human rights
activist Nancy Perez Crespo and Rosa Berre, a journalist who
left in the Mariel boatlift, signed on to promote the initiative.
Over the years, independent journalists were continually
harassed by security agents, and dozens were jailed, detained
or forced into exile. But in 2003 the government struck with
devastating harshness, sentencing two dozen to prison terms
of up to 27 years in the “Black Spring” crackdown.
Today, 23 journalists are jailed, including 19 arrested in
2003. Many others are regularly detained for threats and brief
interrogations. The government seizes computers, fax machines
and typewriters sent by supporters abroad. And infiltrators
remain an all-too-real concern.
The changes introduced by
Raul Castro over the past 15 months “in no way diminished
the government’s repressive attitude towards those who
try to circulate news and information that it does not control,”
the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders declared in February.
And a congress of the official Cuban Journalists’ Union
last year opened with a declaration that the island’s
information policies were “set by the (communist) party.”
In another blow, financial support for the movement has been
shrinking. A program run by the International Media Center
(IMC) at Florida International University, which sent writers
an occasional $10 per story, recently lost the channel it
used to slip cash into Cuba. Perez Crespo says private donations
to Nueva Prensa Cubana (NPC), a Miami-based agency that receives
and distributes the journalists’ reports, are drying
up, and for the first time she’s applying for a USAID
grant. CUBANET, a Miami agency like NPC, says it’s still
sending in the support money it receives from the National
Endowment for Democracy.
Still, independent journalism survives.
CUBANET says it regularly receives reports from 20 journalists
and occasionally from another 30. NPC says it receives reports
from another half a dozen. The IMC program estimates 150-200
are active overall and says it has trained 100 in the past
year alone, through USAID-backed video-conferences hosted
by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. In a promising sign,
most of this year’s trainees appear to be in their 20s
and 30s.
Also improving has been the
dissemination of the journalists’ reports, in the early
days often typed on stacks of carbon paper and handed out
to trusted friends. Almost all now e-mail their reports abroad,
on topics ranging from food shortages to harassments of other
dissidents, slice-of-life commentaries and essays critical
of the government. CUBANET e-mails a daily compilation of
the reports it receives to about 2,000 addresses, while the
IMC polishes and e-mails the best of CUBANET’s reports
to 200 news outlets in Latin America. About 40 have published
the reports, according to the IMC.
And while the independent journalists can’t publish
their work inside Cuba -- one such attempt, a magazine titled
“De Cuba” published only a few thin editions before
security agents shut it down and arrested its editors -- their
work is nevertheless read and heard inside Cuba.
CUBANET says 18-20 percent of visitors to its website, cubanet.org,
come from Cuba, and 15-20 percent of the addressees for its
daily bulletins are on the island. Several Miami Spanish-language
AM radio stations that can be heard in Cuba broadcast some
of the reports daily, and Radio/TV Marti regularly beams some
of the reports back to the island.
“They don’t have
printing presses,” said Perez Crespo, “but they
have supporters outside who distribute their work around the
world and – more importantly – bounce them back
inside.’’
