MADRID, Spain.- Cuba was the worst country in Latin America in terms of press freedom in 2022, according to the ranking World Cup of the French organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
Globally it was among the ten worst. The report, carried out annually, placed the Island in position 173, out of 180; only above Vietnam, China, Burma, Turkmenistan, Iran, Eritrea and North Korea.
In the case of Cuba, Reporters Without Borders pointed out that arrests, arbitrary detentions, threats of imprisonment, persecution and harassment, illegal searches of homes and the confiscation and destruction of material, are part of the daily life of journalists opposed to the line Castro official.
Just as it states that the authorities also control the media coverage of foreign media, selectively granting accreditations and expelling those considered “too negative” towards the regime.
The document indicates that television, radio and newspapers are closely monitored by the State, and the private press continues to be prohibited by the Constitution; while independent journalists are watched by agents who try to limit their freedom of movement, make arrests and delete the information they have.
“Miguel Díaz-Canel, a protégé of Raúl Castro, whom he took over as president of the country in 2019, and later as first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, perpetuates the lineage of the Castro family and maintains almost total control of information” , notes RSF.
This same month, the director of the Inter-American Press Association (SIP), Michael Greenspon, denounced the situation in several Ibero-American countries and especially Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, with respect to freedom of expression.
Greenspon stressed that in these countries “there is no freedom of expression and there is only freedom to express oneself in the manner in which the Government allows it.”
In June of this year, Cuba had become one of the worst countries in Latin America in terms of press freedom, according to the book Chapultepec Index of Freedom of Expression and Press of the Inter-American Press Association.
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