Without real news, a more open democratic socialism is impossible.
By José Alejandro Rodriguez
On October 16, Juventud Rebelde (Rebellious Youth), the official
newspaper of the Union of Communist Youth, published an online article
titled, "Against the Demons who Kidnap Information," by José Alejandro
Rodríguez, a staff writer. The reproduction below was translated by Achy
Obejas.
I'm going to dream one more time. I'm going to imagine that I've never
before contemplated this to the point sheer exhaustion. I'm going to
believe that this is a new concern. I'm going to convince myself that
it's still worth the effort to deal with this old concept called
information—trapped as it is between silence and excessive control…. In
order to practice any style, form or tenet of journalism, you have to be
informed … It is the journalist's duty and the right of the citizen—of
that historic actor that has sustained the revolution and today more
than ever needs to know what's going on—to be informed. …
Never before has information been so urgently needed so that Cuban
citizens can interact and participate in society, as active subjects,
and not like a "pichón" [baby bird]—a word so en vogue these days—who
waits to get its exact dose of information delivered from above. …
The problem—and we've experienced it at Juventud Rebelde—is that
information can get through neither our economy's nor our society's
excessive centralization and that hinders our democratic potential. What
to say—and exactly what not to say—about the great issues of the day, is
decided from on high, even as life stubbornly goes on down below in all
its complexity.
It's sad that a minister can reject a journalist's request for more
information, pretending that everything that needs to be known has
already been said on "Mesa Redonda" [a nightly television round table,
begun during the Elián crisis and frequently hosted by Fidel Castro
until his retirement, in which the government's take on issues is
presented]. Or, more precisely, all that the government wants said. The
exaggerated characterization of "Mesa Redonda" as the forum for supreme
information is an attack on the necessary versatility and variety that
distinguishes good journalism. That "mesaredondization" is a major
contribution to the bureaucratization of Cuban journalism—and I say this
with all due respect to my colleagues who work on that program, and who
are not responsible for this phenomenon.
Somebody—and I swear I can't imagine who that somebody could be—can
decide that certain social or economic things need to done, without a
single bit of information being given to the citizens who have to
implement those measures. For example, what is the process to request an
application to receive unused land for individual farms, something that
would, we are told, make our agricultural sector more dynamic? For an
instant it looked like we could publish something, then it couldn't be
even mentioned. Will we ever be able to write about it? I've been told
by the editors here that the order for silence came from above.
Likewise, our media did not reflect the rich debate promoted by Raúl two
years ago, at the height of our democratic socialism. We still can't
mention this process, in which Party militants and revolutionaries
freely debated the problems that plague all of us.
The press is brought in, like sheep, to promote the new resolution about
merit pay passed by the Ministry of Work and Social Security. This
writer was moved by the idea of bringing an element of the Law of
Socialist Distribution, which has been so lost to us for so long. The
minister in charge is interviewed and there are expectations that those
who work more and better will be able to earn more and live better.
But, in the end, the resolution is defeated because the bureaucrats
don't want to deal with the complicated regulations that would
restructure salaries. Egalitarianism is easier—the same pay for
everyone. And no one explains why pay based on performance is blocked in
Cuba.
A reporter, following his superior's direction, goes to the Ministry of
Economics and Planning because there's an avalanche of rumors in the
foreign press, with its schematic and tendentious emphasis in some
cases, about the closing of workers cafeterias; the reporter needs the
ministry to confirm if it's true, and to explain the basis of the
decision, and if it's not true, to rebut it. The minister delegates to
the vice minister and the vice minister tells the reporter to take it up
with the minister.
This is where the back and forth begins, until the vice minister finally
admits that there's a study being conducted on the matter but a desire
to keep it under wraps "for now." A week later, there's an article in
Granma [the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party], and the
reporter feels defrauded. Is it "mesaredondization" or "granmatitis"?
Maybe it's Granma that has acquired supremacy of information?
There are countless examples of functionaries that take on the right to
decide what information can be published – after looking up to receive
extreme unction for news that's dead on arrival. Almost no one dares to
release information to the media or develop relations with the press
without a bow to their superiors. And many times, the chain of
genuflection goes through so many levels that the news is buried forever. …
Information is a public benefit, and we can't substitute it with
opportune and sanctioned news, with virtual information, with
information-propaganda or convenient information, information held up
with tweezers, or whatever it might be called. Information is information.
In any case, information—with its nuances, its shades of gray—will
always make us more efficient and more revolutionary, more conscious of
the historic moment; more prepared to discern the possible from the
impossible, and more participatory. … Cubans need to look to the future,
to know what's going on, and to not wander like beggars in search for a
stale crust of information. Cubans need to actively participate, to
propose and be taken into account, to discern between good an evil in
order to make the Revolution stronger.
Of course I'm not going to talk about the responsibility of journalists,
some more daring, others more fatigued and conformist. As long as this
policy model of restricted and controlled information persists, there
will be more disenchantment and withdrawal of our professionals.
Without information, without citizen participation, it will be
impossible to lay the foundation for a more open and democratic
socialism. … The revolutionary journalist needs to continue the
struggle. … If they close the door on you, that's news. An alternative
to being shut out is to focus the story through non-institutional
sources, sources that aren't so high up—through the people that are the
major support of the revolution. And to do it with conviction and
responsibility.
Juventud Rebelde has come a long way and won a great deal of prestige in
this Cuban struggle against the demons who kidnap information. Are we
going to retreat? That's the principal challenge of this newspaper's new
leadership, still unnamed, but which is in fact all of us.
Several hours after its publication, the article vanished from the site.
It has never been re-published and does not appear in the newspaper's
archives.
INSIDE CUBA: Against the Demons Who Kidnap Information -- In These Times
(4 December 2009)
http://inthesetimes.com/article/5217/inside_cuba_against_the_demons_who_kidnap_information
No comments:
Post a Comment