Inconvenient truths for repressive regime
OUR OPINION: DIFFERENT DICTATOR, SAME CENSORSHIP IN CUBA
Whatever changes have happened in Cuba with Raúl Castro at the helm, the
repressive fundamentals remain the same. The dictatorship is compelled
to control all media because it is threatened by the truth. This is the
point of the regime's reprisals last week that targeted three foreign
correspondents.
The three -- Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune, César González-Calero of
Mexico City's El Universal and Stephen Gibbs of the British Broadcasting
Corp. -- were notified that they wouldn't be allowed to report from the
island. Mr. Marx was told that his work was ''negative.'' Mr.
González-Calero was told that his coverage was ''not convenient'' for
the communist government.
Censors, of course, don't like news stories that accurately describe
disaffected Cubans, persecuted dissidents, doctors who defect from the
island or Cuba's economic ruin. Now all foreign correspondents have
gotten the message. Watch what you report or you, too, will be persona
non grata. This is how the government controls news going out of the island.
Inside Cuba, the regime also controls all mass media and communications,
including Internet access. Home-grown independent journalists run
illegal press agencies and risk imprisonment at any time. Some 40
journalists have been detained, at tacked or threatened since Raúl
Castro took power provisionally six months ago, according to Reporters
Without Borders.
Ultimately, the regime doesn't want inconvenient coverage to spoil its
relations with the European Union. Nor does it want negative news to
dampen its anti-embargo lobbying efforts in the United States.
Without free expression or a free press, there is no effective check on
the communist government's abuses of power. Until Cuba's leadership
changes, there can be little hope for democracy.
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