C u b a

2. SPECIFIC PRESS LAWS

There is no press law in Cuba. The role and duties of the press are spelled out in the Communist Party of Cuba?s Program Platform and the resolution approved at the Party?s 1st Congress (1975) concerning mass media, in which the function of the press is set out. These regulations were then ratified in the Communist Party Program (1986) and in resolutions on ideology approved at party Congresses since then.

In 1997, the Cuban government passed Resolution Nº 44/97 regulating foreign press activities in Cuba. The resolution states that ?the International Press Center (CPI) is under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has legal jurisdiction to deal with anything to do with the foreign press.?

This resolution limits the work of the foreign press ? Cuban journalists could no longer be correspondents and would have to be paid in pesos, news reports could no longer be filed to various media, it would no longer be possible to send photographs or videotapes with airline passengers or crew, and taxes and customs duties would henceforth be payable.

In Article 3, the resolution states that a correspondent ?must show objectivity in his professional work, sticking strictly to the facts, in line with the ethical principles that govern the practice of journalism.?

It warns: ?In the event of non-compliance, the CPI may issue a warning or temporarily or permanently withdraw accreditation, depending on the circumstances and the consequences of the offense committed.?

Article 7 states that ?in cases of natural catastrophes and contingencies affecting the country, the foreign press must observe the orders and measures that are put into effect under such circumstances.?

It also warns that no correspondent shall without CPI?s knowledge provide information to another news medium or colleague that asks for it from abroad. To re-accredit a correspondent, the CPI may require ?evidence of published work.?

The resolution, which consists of three chapters and 27 articles, stipulates that no news agency may directly hire a Cuban journalist as a stringer, but do so only through a ?state agency.? Such a correspondent, by interpretation, would be subject to the whims of an official intermediary ? something contrary to press freedom.

The powers granted to the CPI allow the government to have control over press activities through third parties ? a useful way of dodging direct responsibility in the world?s eyes for any arbitrary decision that may be imposed.

The International Press Center processes and issues work permits to journalists and temporarily or permanently withdraws them from those who fail to comply with the official regulations. In this way, the Center is given powers akin to those of the immigration authority, with the corresponding linkage to the Interior Ministry that this implies.

The IAPA Press Freedom Committee?s report on Cuba in 1998 says that in less than one year the Cuban authorities denied entry visas to 80 professional journalists on the pretext that they had ?engaged in coverage critical of the government.?

Resolution Nº 44/97 was issued in response to a need to control coverage by the international press of the Pope?s visit to Cuba in January 1998. An appearance of an opening up had previously been given by authorizing CNN to open a bureau in Havana.

Law 80, enacted on December 26, 1997, with the name ?Law of Reaffirmation of National Dignity and Sovereignty,? says in article 8 that ?the full weight of the law shall fall on anyone who directly or indirectly collaborates with enemy news media.? Transgressors face three to 10 years? imprisonment. Referring to this law, Raúl Rivero, editor of CubaPress and the IAPA?s delegate in Cuba, said, ?The problem is that under it, any news item or piece of information that displeases the regime could be regarded as favoring the Helms-Burton law (of the United States).?

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