Freedom of press is so easily taken for granted in the US, yet fought so hard for in Cuba. Cuba being a communist country, naturally doesn’t allow free or independent press. Any media outside of state run television and the state newspaper, “Granma”, are unregulated, and there for illegal. This poses a numerous amount of problems for those living in the country, however the people, as with many other unregulated businesses and jobs, have found their ways around the government to get themselves, and what the rest of the country, need or want. Getting information and stories out to the masses besides that of the government’s choosing is a crucial necessity for helping evoke a want for change, and we were lucky enough to speak to two major independent media platforms who were putting in the effort to do just that.
El Toque, a group of journalists running an online “alternative” platform set on delivering stories and news to Cubans that cant be found in the state (government) run newspaper, “Granma”. While interviewing the group, we learned that independent media like theirs is actually illegal because it is not regulated. Because of this, like many technically illegal businesses, they do their work out of a house using the server from the public wifi park near by. However, the group acknowledges the issues with this and spread their work, along with many other Cuban platforms, through something called “El Paquete”, or The Package, though the threat from the government doesn’t linger far from their minds, “The government can do whatever it wants.. but some spaces the government doesn’t have the tools to control yet… the logic of our legal system is you only can do what the government allows and the rest is forbidden, our logic is backwards…if it is not regulated, its forbidden..it is one of our worst problems, everyday we could be blocked because the government can do whatever it wants..(However) being a black market (El Paquete), it cannot be controlled”. El Paquete being USBs sold to Cubans by a group of people on a timely basis that contains not only independent Cuban media, platforms, and projects, but also TV shows, music, magazines, movies, and much more content that are usually banned access to, including content from the US. While first describing their platform, one member of the group heartwarming ended the introduction with, “We talk about good and bad things with honesty”, as compared to the state run newspaper.
On Cuba, an alternative media dedicated not only to its readers inside Cuba, but interestingly enough, those Cubans who have left the country. While interviewing one of the staff members for the media platform, she explained to us the importance of having a variety of information and stories being released to the public through On Cuba, as well as the importance for those stories to reach or be of relevance not only to those in Cuba, but their families abroad, “…you cannot predict a future of the country without taking into account these people (the family members abroad) that are still influencing what happens inside the country. So we want to talk not only about politics or official stuff, we also want to talk about people themselves, about their stories”. On Cuba also makes a strong effort to stay as neutral as possible, or to include stories and points of view from multiple sides, though this too can prove troublesome when stereotyping and misconceptions come into play from one side or the other; “When you talk about Cuba in the press you will find very polarized positions; theirs media content talking about the perfection of Cuba, and theirs a lot on the other hand talking about ‘the disaster of Cuba’. We are neither of these extremes, though this is also an issue because the two sides still punish (us). One side understands you are not with them, so they think you are on the other side”. A large part of why these people are doing what they’re doing, trying to avoid government intervention and starting the independent and alternative media platforms, is because they feel the people just arent getting what actually matters or is truly important and relevant through state run media, “In Cuban media the stories talk more about statistics and not about people; more about data and not about people’s stories. I hardly find in the media what I feel in the streets, or what I understand people to be feeling… I understand that we need, as a country, to move the debate and talk about these stories because they’re important”.
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