José Antonio Fornaris, Cuba-Verdad / CubaNet
HAVANA, October - All Cuban media are giving front page play to events in
Afghanistan. And all try to demonstrate that the United States are committing
genocide against the Afghan people.
Headlines like "Indiscriminate bombardment victimizes civilians"
and photographs of wounded or hungry children play every day, every hour in the
Cuban government-controlled media.
Monday, for the first time, there was a report that 20 Taliban had been
killed. Up to then there was only mention of "hundreds of innocent victims."
Even though Great Britain is also participating in the attacks, it's never
mentioned. The United States is always the target, the only target, for the
Cuban press' criticism.
It may seem incredible, but official government propaganda never allows that
the United States might be even close to being in the right.Yet, no one
remembers reading or hearing any criticism in the official press about the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And that went on for several years.
The Cuban government of Fidel Castro is the sole owner of all media in Cuba,
and uses it to impose its ideology.
At present, it's very difficult to hear anyone in the streets commenting on
events in Afghanistan; it's as if no one believed what they learn in the
official press. But at the same time, no one differs in public from the official
line. It has been many years without public debate, without the right to know.
Three months ago, Castro said that the "battle of ideas" that he
claims to be waging will save humanity, but the latest developments show that
his battle does not go further than the Havana waterfront.
Most recently, one of the last paragraphs of the Declaration of Principles
of the Latin American and Caribbean Journalists' Convention, held in Havana,
reads: "Facing the threat represented by organized lies, we, the Latin
American and Caribbean journalists, reaffirm our commitment to defend the right
of the peoples to truthful information in order to generate in our societies the
critical consciousness demanded by the times."
I'm all for that. It would be good for the journalists collecting their
paychecks from the Cuban government to heed this point of the declaration.
Versión
original en español
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