Prison Diary LIX Communicating the Truth: New Discovery of the Cuban Government Press

Prison Diary LIX: Communicating the Truth: New Discovery of the Cuban
Government Press / Angel Santiesteban
Posted on October 18, 2013

At the close of the Congress of the Journalists Union of Cuba (UPEC),
participants highlighted, among the priorities, the need for a
journalism consistent with the twenty-first century, with respect to
fresh, genuine, direct and illuminating information, which is nothing
more than the essence of the work of journalism, its ethics and trade,
since its inception; and suddenly it seems to come to the fore as if it
has just been discovered: that the correspondent's only duty is to
communicate the truth.

Dictators, as we all know, the first thing they do is control
information. The Communist Party, from its Department of Ideology and
the Council of State, directly owns all the publications, from which
they present themselves, manipulating the information in accordance with
their interests. They are the owners of the television and newspapers of
the country, where they convert Cuban "journalism" into the simple voice
of the state, without contradicting the political line drawn by the
Government.

After more than fifty years of following this uninterrupted practice, it
would be very difficult to educate the free press, on the basis of
social duty, which should be the only route.

It's a shame that journalists still continue their deception, as they do
in addressing the issue of the four Cuban spies convicted in the United
States, which they still call "The Five", and they do not refer to the
work of the "Wasp Network".

But, without going into details, as it is not the purpose of this post,
I want to deal with the news, and how the pitiful and incomprehensible
is that after so much money spent on the campaign to free them, they
lied to the people who by their own sweat pay for all the travel of
family members, the lawyers and the media paraphernalia.

A few months before going to prison, I learned from a book about most
notorious spies throughout history, including the Cubans imprisoned in
2001, and the Cuban security spy, Ana Belen Montes, who worked at the
Pentagon, which of course is never addressed in the national media but
the world knows it. The author let me know the time and courage which he
dedicated to the investigations and inquiries. After completion, he
presented it to several Cuban publishers, who after showing interest, I
am told, also noting that Cuban spies were included, then refused to
publish it.

It's obvious that censorship in Cuba is like a sickness, that could only
be cured with a political change, to sterilize the evil that has lasted
more than half a century. I imagine, when that time comes, the faces of
Cubans on learning what has been hidden from them, overshadowing their
existence with ignorance.

Ángel Santiesteban-Prats

18 October 2013

Source: "Prison Diary LIX: Communicating the Truth: New Discovery of the
Cuban Government Press / Angel Santiesteban | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/prison-diary-lix-communicating-the-truth-new-discovery-of-the-cuban-government-press-angel-santiesteban/