If in its scope it is – and it is – the first born of a socialist constitution; If in Latin America it is a pioneer in going beyond sectors and articulating organizational, media and community actors in its conception and implementation; and if, in addition, it brings into focus communicative problems previously not resolved here or in other geographies; So the scope of our Social Communication Law (LCS) is historic.
Essential elements of this legal norm and its regulations, published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, were recently analyzed at the Round Table by directors of the Institute of Information and Social Communication (IICS) of our country, and representatives of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) and the Association of Social Communicators (ACS).
WHERE DOES THE LAW COME FROM?
Closely associated with the emergence of the LCS, said Onelio Castillo Corderí, vice president of the IICS, is the vision of the Communist Party of Cuba regarding social communication.
«Platforms, pronouncements and agreements of Party Congresses, and different political documents contributed to that field and the need to transform it; and, of course, the communication policy of the Cuban State and Government serve as the basis for this law, structured from guidelines drawn up by the Constitution of our Republic, one of whose articles establishes the right of people to share and create knowledge. », explained the panelist.
He clarified that at least 17 of the rights embodied in our “law of laws” can be enforced through communication processes.
This law (which had 34 versions in its drafting process) is a collective construction, the product of a consensus, said Onelio Castillo. The debate favored depth and rigor in the approaches and contents; “The concepts, principles and statements of this law have the agreement of the academy, the UPEC, the ACS and society as a whole, an element that – he said – favors its effective implementation.”
In the legislative history of the country, it is the first time that a Law of this nature has been forged, “because in Cuba and in all parts of the world a mediocentric vision had prevailed, surpassed in this legal norm, which is committed to a broader concept of social communication in three areas (organizational, community and media); “It is what distinguishes it from the vision that exists in other latitudes in this regard.”
REGULATION AND ITS OBJECT IN THE COMMUNICATION LAW
The vice president of the IICS maintained that, in the regulations for its application, the Law “highlights the ethical, political, ideological, cultural and social foundations that support it; but it also goes to citizen behavior and their responsibility in the face of this process, since there is an avalanche of manipulation, of de-ideologization when communication processes are built; “The Internet is energizing the hegemonic confrontation that is also carried out through social communication.”
The regulations, Onelio Castillo added, “went through a participation process similar to that of the law, and were also reconciled with all the Central State Administration Agencies, professional organizations, and academia; In addition, with legal specialists and experts in trademark protection and copyright.
«Once the preliminary projects were finished, in their transition to becoming regulations they circulated through different organizations, which made proposals and suggestions; From then on, 244 changes to the texts were approved; “That enriched him.”
FOR THE FIRST TIME, THE LAW WE NEED
Due to its ability to foresee, and its comprehensive vision of social communication, the Law creates a precedent in its field, by strategically incorporating the organizational and community aspects, agreed Rosa María Pérez Gutiérrez, president of the ACS. A law, he said, that unlike others (of its type), “legitimizes an organizational communicative field linked to the media and the community, and articulates it in its implementation.” Communication is an integral process, recognized as a strategic resource of the country’s direction, it contributes to the interests of the nation, she argued.
“For the first time, Cuba’s press system is going to be in law,” Ricardo Ronquillo Bello, president of the UPEC, noted: “Until now, this system has been governed by political documents, very important as “They contain many of the demands and aspirations of the professional sector of the press, but they were not in a law.”
He believed that the regulations come to solve, among other problems, the one associated with the various interpretations of the Communication Policy of the State and the Government, since “there have been visions, sometimes divergent, of how to interpret it and apply it at the different scales of the society”.
The law “clarifies all this, and also allows for greater comprehensiveness in the exercise of journalism and media communication, and interrelates them; In a society like ours we could be united and, at the same time, disjointed,” warned the President of the UPEC.
“Let’s think,” Ronquillo invited, “in today’s Cuban society, which is experiencing a tremendous multidimensional crisis, with a very strong impact on people’s living conditions.”
For example, he cited that, in the midst of this situation, a medium has great interest in providing information, as the law now says, timely, truthful, objective, but that a ministry or a certain institution in the country does not have that same vision ” There would be a clash between the media and institutional visions of communication; (…) the very war that (Cuba) has experienced, the siege to which it is subjected, have incubated a vision that is too discretionary about information.
This law is granting journalists the right to demand that institutions give them public information – they cannot be denied – and establishes terms for this to be fulfilled. That is, “it is giving legal character to a will that is in the direction of the political project of the Revolution.
«Without the legal umbrella that the law now grants us, we would not be able to advance in the changes that we are considering in the country’s press system, which contemplate transformations in the editorial, economic and technological management of the media, while seeking reverse distortions inherited from the socialist construction of the 20th century,” said the national president of the UPEC. «We are talking about a new model of public press for socialism; In this aspiration, the Communication Law is transcendental; “It’s what we needed.”
WHAT’S COMING
The implementation of the Law requires communication training that promotes the culture of society in this field, and facilitates the exercise of the citizen’s right to information, communication and knowledge, explained Belkis Pérez Cruz, also vice president of the IICS.
He said that such work began some time ago, with actions to prepare the IICS structure. Since July 2023, the Institute’s branch school assumes the intensive preparation of the organization’s own directors and its provincial directors. Now they are going to a more specific course on the implementation of the Law.
Pérez Cruz announced an IICS program, with basic training actions for the remainder of the current year, and that includes courses, workshops, skills training and communicative productions, he noted.
It is hoped that, “in the future, these contents will integrate study programs at different levels and teachings,” he revealed. He said that training has been designed for community actors in different contexts, and that a television program project is being developed with the same purpose: “Develop communication skills in Cuban society.”
