The Cuban regime needs to reinforce its news media, diminished by emigration
14ymedio, Havana, 12 October 2024 — In 2020, when the Communication Law that came into force this month was a remote objective of the Cuban legislature, the 226 young people who graduated this Friday had just entered the Faculty of Communication of the University of Havana. Four years later, they have graduated and are given a mission: to be “protagonists for the integral transformation of the press” and the “implementation” of the new law.
The recent graduates will be sent to official media and institutions decimated by the migratory exodus and the march in search of more lucrative jobs, generally in MSMEs. Cubadebate and Granma have given abundant signals about this crisis and have been launching recruitment campaigns for years. They now have put their hopes on the new batch, who must complete two to three years of social service.
The university graduates in Information Sciences are prepared to be librarians and archive managers. Journalism and Communication graduates will take up careers where indoctrination and “political-ideological preparation” play a primary role. In fact, to further guarantee the loyalty of the candidates, women who aspire to be journalists will have to go through military service, a requirement that already exists for men.
They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”
They are a “generation,” emphasized Televisión Cubana, who gave importance to becoming “integral vanguards”; that is, who stood out for their political fervor as well as their academic achievement. This “effort” was recognized at the ceremony. It is, in addition, the “largest graduating class,” not only for the year but also in the history of the Faculty of Communication.
The ceremony was held in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana and was chaired by the Dean of the Faculty, Ariel Terrero, and the President of the Institute of Information and Social Communication, Alfonso Noya. Noya’s presence is significant, since the entity he directs, recently created, emerged after the dissolution of the stagnant Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).
The ICRT, once all-powerful, had the last word on all the content that passed through Cuban Television and responded directly to the Communist Party. It was current Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel who eliminated it, in August 2021, and gave the new Institute the task of “conducting and controlling the Social Communication Policy of the State and the Cuban Government”
A month earlier, the ICRT had failed to contain the impact of the 11 July 2021 protests, and an official journalist, Ana Teresa Badía, had been one of the voices of the regime in pointing out the fiasco. “It could be repeated painfully on July 11 if the ICRT does not communicate better, and I say this with tremendous pain, but it is the truth, and not telling the truth would be an dishonest act on my part,” she warned at the time.
Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of singer Annie Garcés
Along with the head of the Ministry of Truth – the sinister epithet, based on George Orwell’s novel 1984, which not a few Cubans then gave to the Institute – there were several senior officials of the Party. Among them were Liuba Moreno, an official of the Ideological Department, and Liliana Mateu, general secretary of the Party at the University. Another note of loyalty to the regime was the presentation of the singer Annie Garcés, author of countless propaganda pieces and praise for the regime.
Terrero, who gave a final speech, told the students that the panorama is “challenging,” and we must “honor our country” by being useful to the official press. Some students have already done so since they graduated in this career. Several presenters of the propaganda program Con Filo, in addition to the members of several provincial newsrooms, worked there as students.
It is not the first time that the Cuban Government has put its hopes on young professionals, soldiers in the “Battle of Ideas.” The brigades of art instructors, social workers and emerging teachers, today diminished and inactive, have a common factor: high ideological demand and poor education. Lacking experience and preparation, and burdened by indoctrination, many ended up deserting or leaving Cuba.
The new journalists and communicators begin their working life, in addition, with an assigned enemy: the independent press. However, the new Communication Law barely affects that independent press, whose work is illegal in a country that does not recognize basic freedoms, was already penalized by previous laws, including the Constitution.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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