They
take the risks to tell Cuba's story
Journalism a growing field despite Castro's
crackdown on writers
By Tracey Eaton / The
Dallas Morning News, Saturday, May 15,
2004.
HAVANA - Cuba has jailed more journalists
per capita than any nation in the world,
yet the number of people willing to take
up the risky profession is growing, American
officials say.
More than a dozen new writers and reporters
have begun work in recent months despite
the government's imprisonment of 26 journalists
last spring, said a senior U.S. official
in Havana.
"They're not only courageous, they're
good journalists," he said.
Cuban authorities contend that the reporters
are U.S.-paid dissidents and "mercenaries"
intent on toppling the socialist government.
And they vow to prosecute them vigorously
for breaking Cuban laws.
To be sure, experts say, Fidel Castro has
long realized that controlling the flow
of information in Cuba is key to the survival
of his government. His efforts began with
the founding of rebel newspapers and radio
stations in the 1950s and continue today
with what the Cuban leader calls the "battle
of ideas."
Mr. Castro's goal is simple, analysts say:
to convince 11 million Cubans that the socialist
system, with its free health care and schooling,
is more equitable and humane than capitalism.
Granma, the Communist Party's official
newspaper, and other state-run media outlets
reinforce that message every day, recounting
the government's latest accomplishments.
But that gives people a distorted, one-sided
view, contends Ernesto Roque, 36, an independent
journalist in Havana.
He writes about another side of the story
- one in which things aren't so rosy. And
for his troubles, he said, he's been jailed
six or seven times.
A dangerous balance
"As a journalist here, you work with
one foot in your door at home and the other
in prison," he said. "I am afraid.
I'm not any braver than anyone else."
His employer is Cubanet, a nonprofit Miami
group that distributes news about Cuba on
the Internet. It is financed by the U.S.
government, private organizations and donations.
Cuban officials say Cubanet meddles in
the country's affairs in violation of international
norms - an accusation the news agency denies.
Mr. Roque said it's only natural that independent
journalists and dissidents receive foreign
support. The hero of Cuba's independence
movement, Jose Martí, raised funds
in New York in the late 1880s. And Mr. Castro
sought financial backing for his revolution
in the United States in the 1950s.
Cuba has a "historic dependence"
on its northern neighbor, said Mr. Roque,
whose wife is also a journalist.
He's been a journalist for four years.
He said his most exciting moment on the
job came in March 2003 when authorities
rounded up 75 dissidents, journalists and
others as part of the biggest crackdown
on the political opposition in decades.
A story to tell
Mr. Roque said he filed continual reports,
barely stopping to sleep or eat for 72 hours.
"At one point, security agents knocked
on my door," he said. "I was pretty
sure they were going to arrest me. I sent
a fax to Cubanet and wrote, 'This is the
next-to-the-last report I'm going to file.
The next one will be from prison. Long live
freedom of the press!' "
Authorities spared him. He said he's not
quite sure why, but says, "When I'm
old, I'll tell my grandchildren about the
experience."
Such pressure prompts some journalists
to leave.
Warned that he might be jailed, Omar Darío
Pérez Hernández, a writer
for Nueva Prensa in the central town of
Camagüey, left with four others on
a boat on Dec. 7. He and the others haven't
been seen since.
Cuban officials are unapologetic, and they
assert that the U.S. government is responsible
for creating and financing the opposition.
U.S. officials in Havana deny giving cash
to reporters and say they supply only notebooks,
pens, tape recorders, radios and other items.
American officials work out of the former
embassy building, called the U.S. Interests
Section. Its resource center offers books
and free Internet access to Cubans and usually
is bustling. But for weeks after last spring's
crackdown, the center was practically empty,
employees say.
Now it's busy again, they say, and Cubans
must make advance reservations to use the
Internet.
Many of the visitors are independent journalists.
"The movement is recovering,"
said one Interests Section employee, a Cuban
citizen. "If the growth keeps up, the
Cuban government is going to have to arrest
another 75 people - and the U.S. Interests
Section didn't create that."
Whispered questions
The 26 jailed journalists received prison
terms of 14 to 27 years after summary, one-day
trials. Three other journalists are awaiting
trial. That gives Cuba a total of 29 imprisoned
reporters, exceeded only by China with 39,
according to the New York-based Committee
to Project Journalists. Trailing are Eritrea,
with 17; Burma, 10; Vietnam, nine; and Turkey,
five.
Cuban journalists say they often work in
secret, whispering questions to people on
the street and quietly jotting down notes.
It's a hazardous job, they say, because
they are certain some fellow reporters are
actually spies.
When authorities rounded up the journalists
last spring, a dozen security agents who
had been posing as writers and dissidents
emerged to testify against them.
Cuban officials say many more agents remain
in the ranks of the political opposition.
Even some of the jailed writers and dissidents
may be "sleeper" agents, placed
behind bars to boost their credibility in
the political opposition, some experts say.
With all the spies afoot, it's hard to
confide in anyone, said Myriam Leiva, an
independent journalist in Havana.
"Sometimes I don't even trust my own
shadow," she said.
Under such circumstances, many reporters
asked that their bylines be taken off their
stories after the spring clampdown. Now
though, more and more are saying they want
their names used, Ms. Leiva said.
"I want my name to be seen on my work,"
she said. "My main goal isn't money
- and I do need the money. My goal is to
inform."
In a March press appearance, Foreign Minister
Felipe Pérez Roque questioned the
legitimacy of the independent journalists
and dissidents.
Resisting 'subversives'
Of the 75 arrested last spring, he said,
only five had jobs. All the others were
officially unemployed.
"I'd like someone to explain how they
lived," he said. "Almost no one
talks about that."
He added that only two of the arrested
writers had journalism degrees.
Countered Ms. Leiva: "What I'd ask
is whether Felipe Pérez Roque has
a degree in foreign relations." The
foreign minister has a degree in electronic
engineering, his official biography shows.
What matters, he says, is that the Cuban
government be allowed to operate without
interference from U.S.-financed "subversives."
U.S. officials publicly acknowledge that
they spend millions of dollars every year
to try to force Mr. Castro out peacefully
and bring about democracy.
Helping the next generation of journalists
will only make the post-Castro transition
easier, the senior U.S. official said.
The question is, "Who are the journalists
going to be the day after Fidel's gone?"
he asked. "Is it going to be the nonjournalists
of Granma? Or is it going to be these guys,
the independent journalists?"
E-mail traceyeaton2004@yahoo.com
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