Visas for pope's visit withheld
January 17, 1998, in the Miami Herald
By JUAN O. TAMAYO and ANDRES
OPPENHEIMER
Herald Staff Writers
Cuba's failure
to issue visas to at least 60 foreign journalists to cover Pope John Paul II's
visit has cast a spotlight on its longstanding system for intimidating and
punishing the foreign correspondents who cover the island.
The reporters and photographers who had not received visas as of Friday,
just five days before the pope arrives in Havana, include more than three dozen
from Miami, three from Argentina, and other British, German, Danish and French
correspondents.
Some 2,700 journalists have applied for Cuban journalists' visas to cover
the five-day papal visit.
By controlling the flow of visas, Havana has long been able to punish
journalists and news media it deems too critical of Cuba, reward those it finds
acceptable and intimidate everyone in between.
Yet media companies, including The Herald, have seldom complained publicly
about the system—by far the harshest government system of media control in
Latin America—because of concerns that publicity would bring them more
problems with Havana.
"There's a serious question as to whether American news organizations
have pulled their punches in the coverage of [Cuba] for many reasons, including
the fear of losing visas,'' said Charles Lane, editor of The New Republic
magazine.
Foreign journalists permanently based in Havana admit they exercise great
caution and generally pass up sensitive stories for fear of being expelled. "In
Havana, there are no scoops,'' said one European correspondent.
Visiting journalists privately admit they feel pressed to temper their
reports, knowing Cuba has banned dozens of foreign journalists for varying
periods over the last decade as punishment for critical coverage.
"These are battles you don't fight because you want to be around for
the bigger war,'' said a U.S. journalist employed by a magazine that has had two
other reporters banned by Cuba because of their writing.
Often, editors must face the tough question of whether to replace a banned
reporter with one more acceptable to Cuba or simply give up the opportunity of
reporting from inside the island.
If the White House ever tried to select which reporter could cover it, Lane
said, "the entire White House press corps would rise up and call it an
outrageous effort to manipulate the press. But in Cuba, it's a different
story.''
Protests go public
The issue of media controls erupted in public after Cuba denied papal
coverage visas last week to three Argentine journalists, triggering protests by
their editors, their government and the Inter American Press Association.
"The Cuban government believes it has the right to control information
and even, as in this case, the right to censor the coverage of events as
historic as the Pope's visit,'' said the Miami-based IAPA.
A Cuban Embassy official in Buenos Aires, Miguel Guillot, said Matilde
Sanchez of the newspaper Clarin was rejected because one of her stories "disrespected
national heroes.'' She cast doubt on Havana's claim that bones found in Bolivia
last year were those of Argentine-born guerrilla Ernesto "Che'' Guevara.
Guillot said La Nacion reporter Mario Perez Colman was banned because he
reported from Cuba last year while on a tourist visa.
Deputy La Nacion publisher Claudio Escribano said Cuba had denied
journalists' visas to Perez Colman and other reporters, so he was forced to
travel as a tourist.
President Fidel Castro justified the visa rejections last week, criticizing
the Argentine journalists and claiming that Cuba "is surrounded by a
tremendous campaign to justify aggressions, blockades.''
As an example, Castro cited the case of Orlando "El Duque'' Hernandez,
the baseball star who defected last month, describing him as "a sports
mercenary'' who "betrayed his country.'' Yet the media, the Cuban president
protested, "made him a hero.''
`Threat to freedom'
Most Western journalists disagree with Cuba's punishment-and-reward system
of visas.
"We have always viewed this system as a clear threat to freedom of
expression,'' said Joel Simon, Americans Program coordinator for the New
York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
"We think that with the pope's visit, the entire world is going to want
information, fair information, and that Cuba's attempt to limit access based on
prior coverage is irresponsible,'' Simon added.
Yet few foreign media have ever complained in public, and even the Vatican
declined to comment on the visa dispute, indicating it is up to the host country
to issue visas for papal visits.
"They have made it clear the Vatican is not going to bat for any
journalist who doesn't get a visa,'' said one U.S. journalist accredited to the
Vatican.
Even less publicly discussed is the question of whether Cuba's visa system
affects foreign news coverage of the island and what people in the United States
and the rest of the world know about Cuba.
Some editors argue that even if Cuba bans one of their reporters, they can
send in others who will produce equally valid stories.
After Cuba denied a papal visa to St. Petersburg Times correspondent David
Adams, his editor, Chris Lavin, replaced him with Jack Payton, a veteran
journalist and former Rome bureau chief for United Press International.
"We are disappointed that despite his . . . fair work in covering Cuba,
the Cuban government chose to single out David Adams for this limitation,''
Lavin said. "But we owe a responsibility to our readers, and I have another
world-class journalist who can serve our readers.''
Adams, the Times' regular Cuba correspondent, has not received a Cuban visa
since he wrote about prostitution on the island in late 1996. Manipulating
coverage?
Others reject such substitutions as virtually allowing Havana to choose who
will cover it.
Former CBS Latin American correspondent Juan Vasquez recalls that when
Havana complained to his editors in 1990 about his previous coverage, the
network quickly agreed to send in another reporter who had never been to Cuba.
"I just thought my organization was being manipulated,'' said Vasquez,
a former New York Times and Los Angeles Times reporter who now teaches
journalism at Florida International University.
Argentina's Clarin newspaper reported that Havana had suggested it simply
replace the banned Sanchez, but it refused. "It would have implied
accepting the fact that outside factors determine who and in what manner . . .
[Clarin] can carry out the coverage,'' the newspaper said.
Peter Katell, a former Newsweek reporter denied a papal coverage visa, said
he doubts that such visa manipulations significantly affect the slant of foreign
coverage of Cuba.
"It's a tough call, whether to bow to the Cubans and replace someone
they don't like. But I don't think any honest journalist, even a replacement,
would ever pull any punches,'' he said.
But other journalists feel the visa system allows Havana to reject reporters
who know Cuba and grant access to replacements who need time to learn the story
and develop sources in a country where criticizing the government is a crime
called "enemy propaganda.''
Foreign correspondents on full-time assignments are also aware that the
government can swiftly expel them from the island any time they write the wrong
story.
Although most of the dozen or so foreigners based in Havana had heard about
the bomb that rocked a Havana hotel last April, none reported on it until a
Miami Herald journalist in Miami broke the story. Within hours of the Herald
story, most of the reporters in Cuba sent their own stories on the bomb.
"I am here for the long run, not just one or two good stories,'' said
one Latin American correspondent in Havana.
CBS, ABC and NBC journalist, whose networks have received hundreds of visas
to cover the Pope's visit, were reluctant to talk Friday about the few visas
they have not yet been given.
"This is a very sensitive issue,'' said one CBS source, who asked to
remain anonymous. "There is a feeling that anything we say will hurt our
work in Cuba.''
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald
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