A draft bill of the Social comunication It was published this Tuesday by the Cuban Ministry of Justice (Minjus), with a view to starting a process of specialized consultations and receiving criteria from the population on the regulations.
The document, which has 12 chapters and 69 articles, as well as several final provisions, addresses and regulates the different areas of communication, including the media, institutional and community spheres, and also includes journalistic activity, the country brand and the communicative processes in the digital space.
In addition, it has among its novelties a section dedicated to advertising and sponsorship, two topics historically vetoed, with few exceptions, in the Cuban state media, a topic that will be further developed in one of the complementary regulations to the law, as well as than with regard to contraventions.
This was reported this Tuesday at a press conference by Cuban authorities in the sector, participants in the drafting of the text, who insisted on the “integrative” nature of the norm, which they described as “unprecedented” and “strategic” for the country in the current national and international context.
Posted on the website of @CubaMinjus the Draft Law on Social Communication
?https://t.co/to5IiCyhHi
Opens the possibility of studying the text and issuing opinions, for which e-mail was enabled
?[email protected]#CubaLegisla— Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Cuba. (@CubaMinjus) July 12, 2022
The specialists explained that the norm responds to the guidelines on Social Communication in the current Magna Carta of the country, approved in 2019, and pursues the construction of a “more robust” communication system, which guarantees “the defense of the current constitutional order”.
In addition, the experts affirmed that the law does not seek to “restrict” communicative processes and practices in Cuba, but rather to guide them with the intention of overcoming the existing “legislative dispersion” in this regard on the island, and also contribute to the education of people in communication.
They assured that the drafting of the text was the result of a study process of several years, in which regulations and previous documents on the subject in the country were consulted, as well as a large group of international legislation and academic research.
The draft, of which 32 versions have already been drawn up, can be downloaded from the Minjus website for reading and analysis, and interested parties can issue opinions via email ([email protected]) and other channels that will be enabled for it. Among these, the experts mentioned telephone and digital channels that “will be informed in a timely manner”, and called on people to “enrich” the final wording of the standard with their opinions.
The consultation does not yet have a defined closing date, although it is expected to extend beyond the summer months. Nor is there yet a possible date for the presentation to the National Assembly of the version resulting from the consultation and for the presumable approval of the norm.
This, according to what the authorities explained to the press, was initially conceived as a decree-law that should be approved this year, but during its elaboration it rose to the rank of law, which has prolonged the process.
Even though the matter has been handled for decades, Cuba does not have a press law or other related aspects to date, and the sector has been regulated until now by specific resolutions and decrees, and documents from the government and the Communist Party. The most recent, the Social Communication Policy of the Cuban State and Governmentis one of the bases of the new norm, detailed the specialists.
The Cuban Constitution affirms that the media “are socialist property”, which excludes the possibility of private media and has kept independent journalism in a legal vacuum until now. Its practitioners, particularly those who hold a critical position or are in opposition to the government, are often viewed with suspicion by the authorities or accused of spreading false information and being at the service of foreign interests, which can already be punished under the new Code. Island Prison.
