Playing in the Hands of the Enemy

Rosa Martinez

HAVANA TIMES — A lot has been said about the Cuban press and its journalists on social networks. Those employed by Cuba’s media have criticized the press they themselves work for, where they feel they are denied a true, active role.

Everyone feels entitled to criticize Cuban journalists, but they are probably the least to blame for the inaptly-called “secretiveness” that affects us so.

On more than one occasion, I myself have written about the many problems Cuba’s press faces. I have focused especially on how afraid the Party and Cuban government are of providing the enemy with information it can use against the country. This may have been a legitimate concern 10 years ago, but it doesn’t hold water in today’s world.

The enemy has no need of our media professionals or the information they divulge to get hold of the latest and most important news regarding Cuba. They have their own ways of getting this information.

What is a fact, however, is that anything we don’t report on will be reported on by others. That is to say, either we publish the embarrassing news about our country or someone else will do so, shaping these as they see fit.

We must put our feet on the ground once and for all and allow our journalists to dare, to take the risk of getting the country’s news out without fearing that someone will misjudge our country’s main achievements, or criticize the problems we still have after so many years of revolution.

It doesn’t matter what others have to say. What’s important are our lives, the lives of Cubans inside and outside the island, those of us who know well what our achievements and our shortcomings are.

Our press editors, and other officials higher up on the ladder, can decide to create an astute and incisive press to adequately inform the public about the country’s developments, or they can go on thinking that reporting on certain issues is playing into the hands of the enemy, an enemy that, thanks to Facebook, Twitter, Google, personal blogs and telephone calls knows more about our own house than we do.