He cuban parliament unanimously approved this Thursday a long-prepared Social Communication Law in its version 34 of the project.
The project that was finally approved had 69 modifications “in content and form”, compared to version 33 that was submitted to the second consultation with the deputies.
The Assembly, just over a month after being constituted, with 470 deputies and without yet organizing itself into its traditional Commissions, created a temporary group to advance the new norm.
The Council of State decided to include a transitory provision so that, within two years, the president of the Institute of Information and Social Communication, Alfonso Noya Martínez, report to the Assembly on the process of implementation of the law.
The legal provision will regulate processes in the organizational, media and community spheres, for political, public good, organizational and commercial purposes, both in physical and digital public spaces.
Noya Martínez, in the presentation of the law to the deputies, explained the “contribution of social communication to strengthen the unity of the people, consolidate the ideology of our socialist society and defend the independence, sovereignty and security of the homeland”.
Addressing the deputies Miguel Díaz-Canel, he considered that this legislation should allow “overcoming gaps and overcoming institutional inertia.”
“In the face of a certain situation, which is negatively impacting the population, the responsible public servants are obliged to report immediately from all possible spaces.”
He also said that it is up to the press “to count first and responsibly every sensitive information for the people.”
“It is time to understand and use all the resources of social communication to favor participation, transparency and accountability”.
The Communication Law should have been approved at the end of 2022, but the Council of State asked to delay it due to its “complexity” and to the fact that the multiple changes that were introduced to it had not been transferred in their entirety to the parliamentarians.
a historical law
Deputy Rosa Miriam Elizalde, journalist and member of the drafting commission, defended the historical nature of the Law in plenary session of the Assembly, as it is the first of its kind derived from the Constitution.
In his opinion, it goes far beyond the national geography. “It is the first standard in Latin America that transcends the sectoral,” he specified about what he considers unprecedented, one of the great aspirations of the academic community and communicators.
It is, he said, an umbrella law, like the Family Code, “because it cuts across all spheres of society. In legislative terms, he adds, it places the State in the capacity of mediator and guarantor between the citizens and the great national powers.
Yoerky Sánchez, member of the Council of State and director of the newspaper rebel youth, explained that it is not a Press or Media Law, although it includes regulations on that sector.
