Cuba keeps stranglehold on foreign journalists
Visas for pope's visit withheld
The reporters and photographers who had not received visas as of Friday, just five days before the pope arrives in Havana, include more than three dozen from Miami, three from Argentina, and other British, German and French correspondents.
Some 2,700 journalists have applied for Cuban journalists' visas to cover the five-day papal visit.
By controlling the flow of visas, Havana has long been able to punish journalists and news media it deems too critical of Cuba, reward those it finds acceptable and intimidate everyone in between.
Yet media companies, including The Herald, have seldom complained publicly about the system -- by far the harshest government system of media control in Latin America -- because of concerns that publicity would bring them more problems with Havana.
``There's a serious question as to whether American news organizations have pulled their punches in the coverage of [Cuba] for many reasons, including the fear of losing visas,'' said Charles Lane, editor of The New Republic magazine.
Foreign journalists permanently based in Havana admit they exercise great caution and generally pass up sensitive stories for fear of being expelled. ``In Havana, there are no scoops,'' said one European correspondent.
Visiting journalists privately admit they feel pressed to temper their reports, knowing Cuba has banned dozens of foreign journalists for varying periods over the last decade as punishment for critical coverage.
``These are battles you don't fight because you want to be around for the bigger war,'' said a U.S. journalist employed by a magazine that has had two other reporters banned by Cuba because of their writing.
Often, editors must face the tough question of whether to replace a banned reporter with one more acceptable to Cuba or simply give up the opportunity of reporting from inside the island.
If the White House ever tried to select which reporter could cover
it, Lane said, ``the entire White House press corps would rise up and call
it an outrageous effort to manipulate the press. But in Cuba, it's a
different story.'' Protests go public
``The Cuban government believes it has the right to control information and even, as in this case, the right to censor the coverage of events as historic as the Pope's visit,'' said the Miami-based IAPA.
A Cuban Embassy official in Buenos Aires, Miguel Guillot, said Matilde Sanchez of the newspaper Clarin was rejected because one of her stories ``disrespected national heroes.'' She cast doubt on Havana's claim that bones found in Bolivia last year were those of Argentine-born guerrilla Ernesto ``Che'' Guevara.
Guillot said La Nacion reporter Mario Perez Colman was banned because he reported from Cuba last year while on a tourist visa.
Deputy La Nacion publisher Claudio Escribano said Cuba had denied journalists' visas to Perez Colman and other reporters, so he was forced to travel as a tourist.
President Fidel Castro justified the visa rejections last week, criticizing the Argentine journalists and claiming that Cuba ``is surrounded by a tremendous campaign to justify aggressions, blockades.''
As an example, Castro cited the case of Orlando ``El Duque''
Hernandez, the baseball star who defected last month, describing him as
``a sports mercenary'' who ``betrayed his country.'' Yet the media, the
Cuban president protested, ``made him a hero.'' `Threat to freedom'
``We have always viewed this system as a clear threat to freedom of expression,'' said Joel Simon, Americans Program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
``We think that with the pope's visit, the entire world is going to want information, fair information, and that Cuba's attempt to limit access based on prior coverage is irresponsible,'' Simon added.
Yet few foreign media have ever complained in public, and even the Vatican declined to comment on the visa dispute, indicating it is up to the host country to issue visas for papal visits.
``They have made it clear the Vatican is not going to bat for any journalist who doesn't get a visa,'' said one U.S. journalist accredited to the Vatican.
Even less publicly discussed is the question of whether Cuba's visa system affects foreign news coverage of the island and what people in the United States and the rest of the world know about Cuba.
Some editors argue that even if Cuba bans one of their reporters, they can send in others who will produce equally valid stories.
After Cuba denied a papal visa to St. Petersburg Times correspondent David Adams, his editor, Chris Lavin, replaced him with Jack Payton, a veteran journalist and former Rome bureau chief for United Press International.
``We are disappointed that despite his . . . fair work in covering Cuba, the Cuban government chose to single out David Adams for this limitation,'' Lavin said. ``But we owe a responsibility to our readers, and I have another world-class journalist who can serve our readers.''
Adams, the Times' regular Cuba correspondent, has not received a Cuban
visa since he wrote about prostitution on the island in late 1996.
Manipulating coverage?
Others reject such substitutions as virtually allowing Havana to choose who will cover it.
Former CBS Latin American correspondent Juan Vasquez recalls that when Havana complained to his editors in 1990 about his previous coverage, the network quickly agreed to send in another reporter who had never been to Cuba.
``I just thought my organization was being manipulated,'' said Vasquez, a former New York Times and Los Angeles Times reporter who now teaches journalism at Florida International University.
Argentina's Clarin newspaper reported that Havana had suggested it simply replace the banned Sanchez, but it refused. ``It would have implied accepting the fact that outside factors determine who and in what manner . . . [Clarin] can carry out the coverage,'' the newspaper said.
Peter Katell, a former Newsweek reporter denied a papal coverage visa, said he doubts that such visa manipulations significantly affect the slant of foreign coverage of Cuba.
``It's a tough call, whether to bow to the Cubans and replace someone they don't like. But I don't think any honest journalist, even a replacement, would ever pull any punches,'' he said.
But other journalists feel the visa system allows Havana to reject reporters who know Cuba and grant access to replacements who need time to learn the story and develop sources in a country where criticizing the government is a crime called ``enemy propaganda.''
Foreign correspondents on full-time assignments are also aware that the government can swiftly expel them from the island any time they write the wrong story.
Although most of the dozen or so foreigners based in Havana had heard about the bomb that rocked a Havana hotel last April, none reported on it until a Miami Herald journalist in Miami broke the story. Within hours of the Herald story, most of the reporters in Cuba sent their own stories on the bomb.
``I am here for the long run, not just one or two good stories,'' said one Latin American correspondent in Havana.
CBS, ABC and NBC journalists, whose networks have received hundreds of visas to cover the Pope's visit, were reluctant to talk Friday about the few visas they have not yet been given.
``This is a very sensitive issue,'' said one CBS source, who asked to remain anonymous. ``There is a feeling that anything we say will hurt our work in Cuba.''
Copyright © 1998 The Miami Herald