Manuel Vázquez Portal, Grupo Decoro / CubaNet
HAVANA, October - Those who know I'm an independent journalist believe I
have more information than they do. Whenever they see me, they ask questions I
wish I could answer. They ask with the certainty that I can satisfy their
curiosity, not even considering the possibility that I may not have up-to-the-
minute news. They think a journalist should know everything that happens in the
world. They have no idea that I'm as poorly informed as they are.
In Cuba, information is a prerogative, a state secret. Not even the
government's own journalists have all the information, and those that may, by
hook or by crook, come by it, are barred from divulging it until given orders to
do so.
To find out what happened, is happening, or will happen in the planet, one
has to wait until the head of the government, the Party, the State, or the Armed
Forces say it or authorize that it be said. In the meantime, one has to make do
with rosy fluff stories about the Chinese quarter or retirement homes which are
aired three of four times a day through the two TV channels to which people have
access.
Having information in Cuba is a priviledge of the powerful, or of daring,
clandestine Internet navigators and happy owners of short-wave radios.
Mystery, secrecy, and compartmentalization are the natural state of
information in Cuba. A state of emergency or war is not necessary to limit
information. The right to know of every citizen on earth is reduced in Cuba to
knowing what the government wants people to know. Since all media belong to the
government, only that which is to their interest or convenience gets published.
That's why when people ask me about the new developments in the possible war
against Afghanistan or about peace talks between Arafat and Shimon Peres, I can
only shrug.
I'm a journalist without a phone, without a fax, without a computer with
Internet access, and I don't even have a short wave radio. What can I know? What
can I find out?
Lately, a rumor has been going around about a woman named Ana Belén
Montes, a 44-year-old Puerto Rican who occupied a high position in the Pentagon
and spied for the Cuban government. Who said it? The official media here haven't
mentioned a word. Don't they want the Cuban people to know about it? That's the
disadvantage of learning only what the government wants you to know.
Versión
original en español
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