New Law in Cuba: Censorship Disguised as Communication
By Francisco Acevedo
HAVANA TIMES – The New Communication Law (already approved and in force since October 1) revealed its true purpose within hours: greater censorship disguised as an improvement in the island’s communication system.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the big novelty is the approval of advertising, which is remarkable considering the absence of this outside state institutions over the past 60 years.
However, as Lorayne Izquierdo O’Farril, Deputy General Director of Advertising and Sponsorship at the Institute of Information and Social Communication, publicly stated, advertising will be subject to strict control. This does not refer to products like tobacco or alcoholic beverages, which are restricted to certain hours in most countries.
The Inter-American Press Society (SIP) condemned this new law, which reinforces repression of press freedom and restricts citizens’ freedom of expression. It only recognizes the legality of media linked to the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), the only legal party in the country, and journalists who are not part of the pro-government Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) cannot legally practice journalism.
This means that independent media in Cuba, all of which are digital because they lack access to printing, radio, or television platforms, will continue to go unrecognized by the regime, and their journalists will continue to face threats of imprisonment from the authorities.
Article 13.1, which states that “content under no circumstances can (…) be used with the intent of subverting the constitutional order and destabilizing the socialist state” or “defame, slander, or insult individuals, organs, agencies, state entities, political, mass, and social organizations in the country,” is a carte blanche to accuse anyone who posts non-official information on social media, even if it’s true, and punish them with six months to three years in prison, or financial fines.
One of the first actions under the Law is to update the registry of websites and serial publications, which is already being viewed with suspicion by independent media.
According to state media, the law encourages a spirit of dialogue and an inclusive perspective. It recognizes the existence of community communication, which implies that communication is not the exclusive property of the press, but this contradicts the limits imposed on content.
They should talk about this to Yeris Curbelo Aguilera, who reported on a protest in Caimanera, Guantanamo, for the independent outlet Palenque Visión in May of last year. He was sentenced to two years in prison on September 24, allegedly for assault, though he claims that both he and his son were the ones assaulted.
In the same region, a court recently dismissed the appeal of five Cubans who protested and upheld sentences ranging from two to eight years for “incitement to commit a crime,” “public disorder,” and “assault.”
Curbelo documented the protest and the subsequent repression in video reports, and the regime’s political police did not let him go unpunished.
A day before the Law came into force, Annery Rivera Velasco and Yennys Hernandez Molina, a married couple, publicly announced on social media that they were resigning from “collaborating and/or participating in any independent media or project considered subversive or contrary to the interests of the Cuban government.”
Soon after, journalist Yadira Alvarez Betancourt also announced her resignation in a post very similar to that of her colleagues, and the music magazine Magazine AM/PM, which is not openly political, announced a pause in its publication. Coincidence? Not at all. Independent journalists commonly face pressures, threats, interrogations, intimidation, brief detentions, and even confiscation of work equipment and money, sometimes involving their own family members, to make them abandon their work.
The digital outlet CubaNet reported that several of its collaborators, without mentioning names, were threatened with long prison sentences. In Guantanamo, independent journalist Niober Garcia Fournier and Juan Luis Bravo Rodriguez, a member of the Free Cuba United Party (PUNCLI), also reported recent violations of their rights. The independent outlet El Toque also lost several collaborators in recent months for the same reason.
According to the Law, simply making a comment or reacting to a post deemed to have the “intent of subverting the constitutional order” will be enough to violate it. Opponent Jose Manuel Barreiro Rouco, for example, was detained in June last year in Cienfuegos for sharing memes that affected “the honor and integrity of key figures of the Cuban Revolution,” including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, and was later sentenced to two and a half years in prison for contempt and illegal possession and sale of foreign currency. From now on, even interacting on social networks could be considered a violation.
Nationally, the regulation validates Cubans’ right to request and receive truthful, useful, and timely information, and public officials are obligated to provide it to the state media. However, in practice, this has never worked, and it remains to be seen whether this legal instrument will really be applied to question —let alone hold accountable— a minister, for example.
Likewise, heads of the Communist Party’s ideological departments in each province, accompanied by journalists, will be trained to “respond immediately, transparently, and truthfully, particularly in situations that, due to their nature, sensitivity, and public importance, require urgent communication with the population”.
For each supposed “infraction,” fines will range from 3,000 to 30,000 Cuban pesos. However, it clarifies that “the obligation of managers, officials, and employees of state bodies, agencies, and entities to provide requested information to journalists and media managers” is an exclusive right of state media.
At least I want to see how this last issue and advertising, the only “positive” points of this new legislation, will be handled.