The Social Communication Law represents a first step in the process of regulation and organization of the social communication system in Cuba, and as so it should be understood, even though it is the result of a long process of debate and review, said the First Secretary of the Party Central Committee and President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on Thursday when he spoke in the debate prior to the approval of the regulation by the deputies.
As part of the Second Extraordinary Session of the National Assembly of People's Power, in its tenth Legislature, the president shared his considerations on the content of the new law, later approved by Parliament, and its implementation, as well as its importance for our country and the process of socialist leadership.
He pointed out that, although the stated objectives and the wording of the articles of this norm have a necessarily regulatory approach, its greatest value lies in the recognition of the potentialities and benefits of social communication for the development of the country.
The long period of confrontation and aggressiveness that characterizes the criminal policy of the U.S. government has an impact on all areas of Cuban society and, in particular, on communication. "However, this is not, by far, the reason for this Law," the President clarified.
What we are called upon to approve, he said, is fundamentally the design of a framework of possibilities aimed at the development of the social communication system in Cuba which, in addition, we have conceived as a pillar of the Government.
If the regulation has limits, and it does, it is because it recognizes and expresses the current state in the areas of knowledge and professional practice associated with communication in Cuba, he said.
It means that the law must necessarily continue to be articulated and developed, including aspects related to institutional and community communication, and not only media, or specifically associated with the press, he said.
He pointed out that one of the great challenges imposed by the new Law is derived from the definitions and interpretation of communication in the digital sphere and its integration with the rest of the system, due to the complexity of a scenario evolving at an unprecedented speed.
The President stressed the importance of recognizing and including the role of people in the organizational and media spheres, since all those who participate in the communication processes have an impact, interact, relate to each other, have levels of influence and decide, to some degree, the effectiveness of communication.
On the other hand, he added, these areas only gain meaning in their interrelation with people, from the actions designed for them, with them or taking into account their characteristics and/or needs.
Therefore, Díaz-Canel stressed, it is essential and necessary that along with this Law, and in favor of its more effective implementation, education for communication and media literacy of people in our country be promoted and encouraged. The population need to be provided with knowledge, skills and tools for a critical understanding and assessment of the logics of media operation, in addition to enhancing and facilitating access to them and to information and communications technologies (ICTs).
It is essential to understand how much the development of ICTs has impacted the role of the subjects involved in these processes: it is no longer a simple sender-message-receiver formula. "Presence does not guarantee visibility," he emphasized.
He pointed out that this level of concentration of consumption in platforms that are not public property, and that establishes restrictions to the practice of users according to their interests, although they say otherwise in the discourse, as well as the mechanisms of filtering information based on algorithms, make access to information and the possibilities of communication, in short, less and less public domain and less and less democratic.
A PERMANENT WORKING STANDARD ATTACHED TO THE CONSTITUTION
Díaz-Canel recalled that, as the Law is a norm of high strategic impact, as it regulates one of the areas in which Cuba receives the most attack, some of the main debates in intellectual and professional sectors have focused on specific aspects of the norm that could favor or legitimize certain manifestations of subversion and impact on national security, in a context of intense media warfare.
The main elements of the debate have had, the President said, a preventive approach to subversion, and are aimed mainly at the nature of the media and their ownership, and the regulation of the figure of sponsorship.
Based on these concerns, he added, adjustments were made to its articles and wording, seeking to eliminate ambiguities and avoid future interpretations that could contradict the spirit and the letter of the Constitution.
He also emphasized that the Law recognizes that the information supporting the communication processes must be truthful, objective, timely, updated, verified and understandable, as basic elementary principles.
Regarding communication in the organizational sphere, the Head of State pointed out that the law must become a permanent working instrument, in order to understand that the purpose is not the transfer message, but the essential usefulness of the communicational management, according to the strategic objectives of the entity.
"This legislation should allow us to overcome gaps and institutional inertia. Any given situation that is negatively impacting the population, the responsible public servants are obliged to inform immediately, from all possible spaces," said the President and he indicated that it is up to the press, for its part, "to tell first and responsibly every information that could be sensitive for the people."
The First Secretary of the Party also emphasized that it is time to understand and use all the resources of social communication to favor engagement, transparency, accountability, and to unite all our knowledge in order to extract the best ideas, articulate them and generate consensus.
He pointed out that, given that we are a structured and organized country, where we work hard to resist the onslaught of a hostile and suffocating harassment, it is fundamentally up to social communication to contribute to the construction of the country's image, in correspondence with the attributes that identify the nation and the reality we live in.
Díaz-Canel reiterated that the Revolution seeks true dialogue that puts truth and ethics before indecency and perversity, that does not negotiate its existence, does not legitimize mercenaries and acts with security and firmness.
Furthermore, the President warned, we have in front of us a space taken over by extremists, fundamentalists, where anti-Cuban forces, generators of hatred, act in permanent disposition for lynching based on lies, manipulation, distortions, incitement to violence and even military regression.
In this regard, he condemned that one of the most popular musical groups in Cuba, Buena Fe, is suffering right now the attack of professional haters, encouraged from toxic platforms with a single objective: to provoke the end of the Revolution.
Díaz-Canel denounced that those who defend the truth are exposed not only to pay the price for their ideas, but also to suffer personal disqualification, censorship and hatred, and we are not afraid of the challenge, we assume it with pride and dignity.
He added that this defense is part of our sense of nationhood, which has been shaped by the sum of the individualities that made it, essentially united in the efforts to overcome our shortcomings and in the communion of dreams to be achieved.
The Cuban president referred to Dr. Hilda Saladrigas Medina, one of the experts who has contributed the most to the drafting of this normative text, when she summarized the fundamental essence of this Law: "Cuba in its particularity can and must do all practices and social communication in a different way, in a revolutionary way."
Translated by ESTI
