The political-professional debates on the (de)regulation and political dependencies in the Cuba media system

Abstract In the last five years there has been a growing and unprecedented debate in Cuban society about the being and the must be of journalism and the need to reconfigure the media system. Political, professional and academic voices have participated in this discussion. This article discusses positioning and state intervention in the media, the need for legal regulation of the media sector, and the nature of its relationship with politics. This work is based on: firstly, the analysis of public interventions by politicians; political and professional program documents; media articles; interviews and posts by journalists; and scientific products on this subject; and, secondly, the data obtained through the Cuban Journalistic Culture project, in which in-depth interviews of a sample of 45 journalists belonging to different media from all regions of the country were conducted. The results show that, while in relation to the need for a legal framework for the exercise of journalism there is a greater coincidence of points of view, in regard to the political direction of the media the nuances and contradictions are greater and vary according to the position and media affiliation of the Cuban journalists. Among them, there is a consensus with regard to the importance of guaranteeing their right of access to information and promoting journalism with a vocation for public service. Key Words: Media System, Journalism Regulation, Journalists, Professional Culture, Cuba. JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 13, No. 1, April 2021, pp. 27 – 40 © Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON). About the authors * Dasniel Olivera Pérez, Ph.D., is of the Universidad de Tijuana, México. He holds a PhD. in Social and Political Sciences (2019) from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico. He was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Communication of the Universidad de La Habana (2010-2014), Editor of Cuban Journal of Information and Communication (2014-2020), Associate Professor (2012-2019) and Assistant Professor (2006-2011) in the Department of Social Communication, Faculty of Communication, Universidad de La Habana. He develops the research lines: media systems and comparative journalistic cultures, communication policies, citizen participation and digital empowerment, education and communication. ** Martín Oller Alonso, Ph.D. is of the Università degliStudi di Milano, Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Journalism (Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid, 2012). He is involved in several international research projects such as World of Journalism Study (WJS), Journalistic Cultures and Pre-professional Journalistic Culture based on the comparative analysis of journalism, journalists and journalism career students in more than a hundred countries around the world. He has resided in Switzerland, England, France, Spain, and Ecuador; conducting research stays in Italy, Cuba and the United States. *** Jennifer Veliz Gutiérrez is a PhD Candidate in Strategic Communication, Publicity & Public Relations, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain. She was Assistant professor and researcher in the area of Conceptual problems of Journalism at Communication School, Universidad de La Habana (2014-2019) and Editor of Cuban Journal of Information and Communication (2014-2019). She develops the research lines: Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Education, University Innovation Labs, Journalism Studies. Full Article Words: 9,294 Pages: 14 To access full article, click on download. Article Citation Pérez, D. O., Alonso, M. O. & Gutiérrez, J. V. (2021). The political-professional debates on the (de)regulation and political dependencies in the Cuba media system. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 13 (1): 27 – 40.