Year after year, Cuba continues to be the worst country in Latin America in terms of press freedom, the latest Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report reveals this week.
The World Press Freedom Indexwhich evaluates the conditions for the practice of journalism in 180 countries and territories around the world, places the island in one of the last places with a score of 173, worsening its position compared to the previous year when it was 171.
The organization believes that distrust of the press has continued to gain ground in the Americas, “fueled by anti-media rhetoric and a generalization of stigmatizing speeches by the political class.”
“These public attacks, which are becoming increasingly visible and vicious, are weakening the profession and fueling abusive trials, campaigns of defamation and intimidation – particularly against women – and online harassment of critical journalists,” the RSF report said.
The 2022 CLASSIFICATION in Cuba points to the political context on the island as a true extension of the regime of Fidel and Raúl Castro: “Miguel Díaz-Canel, protégé of Raúl Castro, whom he succeeded as President of the country in 2019 and later as First Secretary the Communist Party of Cuba continues the lineage of the Castro family and retains almost complete control over the information”.
“Arrests, arbitrary detentions, threats of detention, persecution and harassment, illegal house searches, and the confiscation and destruction of materials are part of everyday life for journalists who defy the official Castro line,” the Cuba report said.
“Authorities also control foreign media coverage, selectively granting accreditations and excluding those who are ‘too negative’ towards the regime,” RSF adds.
As for that media landscape Points out that TV stations, radio stations and newspapers are closely monitored and controlled by the state, the private press remains banned by the constitution and that “independent journalists are being watched by agents who try to restrict their movements, make arrests and delete the information that they possess”.
About him Legal framework in which journalism is practiced in the communist country, Reporters Without Borders explains: “Bloggers and some citizen journalists find the internet a space of freedom, access to which is largely state-controlled, but they do so at their own peril: confronted with the cruelty of the authorities they are often imprisoned or forced into exile. In 2021, new regulations made the principle of an open, free and inclusive internet even more utopian and violated the right to freedom of expression, information and partnership in the digital environment”.