Neighborhood Journalism in Cuba

Neighborhood Journalism in Cuba / 14ymedio, Rene Gomez Manzano
Posted on October 26, 2015

14ymedio, Rene Gomez Manzano, Havana, 24 October 2015 — Thanks to the US
Embassy in Havana, which provides press briefings with national and
international news to us Cubans who navigate in their internet rooms,
last Monday, October 19, I learned about a new information organ.
Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) is the name by which the
colleagues engaged in it identify themselves.

The presentation of the new digital media starts with an appealing
paragraph: "Journalism is an implicit promise of change. Presenting
yourself as a journalist is almost like preaching in favor of hope. When
you ask someone to tell you their story, it is not just asking them to
confide in you, but also to believe that sharing their story can help to
change something."

According to its statement of principles, "Neighborhood Journalism is
born with the objective of bringing to the public the stories of
neighborhoods affected by natural disasters, or particularly vulnerable
to phenomena such as hurricanes, floods, droughts, fires, landslides or
others caused by man."

A summary of the United States press fills more than 34 pages of the
first issue. In addition, there are reports – of good quality including
some that are excellent, although perhaps one might consider them late –
dedicated to floods suffered by different Havana neighborhoods six
months ago, during the torrential rains of last April 29.

It should be clarified that the colleagues of the new media have shown a
special interest in not projecting themselves as against the established
government in our country. In the presentation, for example, it is
bluntly stated, "We do not accept donations from any institution that
seeks – or has sought – the subversion of the Cuban political system."

Are these journalists outside the system, but who do not want to stand
out as being so? "Chemically pure" informers who do not want to identify
themselves with any party agenda? Agents of a new pro-government
initiative to make it seem that in Cuba the press acts freely? The broad
access that Neighborhood Journalism enjoys to the Castro regime's organs
and officials could suggest the latter.

But the answers to these questions do not seem to have great importance.
The purpose of truthfully reflecting the realities that confront our
compatriots in the face of natural disasters deserve everyone's
applause. And it is fair to say that the compañeros of Neighborhood
Journalism, to achieve this purpose, have displayed objectivity and
professional skill. They do not follow the easy path of limiting
themselves to proclaiming "the Revolution does not abandon its children."

The series of reports begins with a piece by Geisy Guia Delis devoted to
the work of the members of the National Search and Rescue Detachment,
belonging to the Fire Department. It does not lavish laudatory
adjectives or trite words on them: it focuses on the facts, such as –
and this is just one example – the outstanding performance of a disabled
rescuer, something that is perhaps exclusively Cuban.

From the expository point of view, it might have been preferable to
start the delivery of Neighborhood Journalism with another of the
reports. But we should not belittle different aspects of importance.
Among them, the understandable aspiration to play it safe, leading off
with a laudatory work which, regardless of the humanitarian effort
undertaken, is about an arm of the Ministry of the Interior, an
emblematic force of the system. One more way not to alienate the
powers-that-be.

The second article is a report from San Felipe by Monica Baro: probably
the best of the issue. It is amazed that the dispossessed of this
capital neighborhood continue to suffer the calamities described in the
report, trembling with anxiety whenever the sky clouds over and
threatens rain with the consequent promise of certain flooding. And this
more than half a century after the proclamation of the "Revolution of
the humble, by the humble and for the humble"…

The colleagues of Neighborhood Journalism elude political allusions like
the one I just offered, but it is not necessary to make them. They
describe the reality and this, in its turbidity, is more eloquent than
any adjective or declarations. We await their upcoming issues.

Source: Neighborhood Journalism in Cuba / 14ymedio, Rene Gomez Manzano |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/neighborhood-journalism-in-cuba-14ymedio-rene-gomez-manzano/