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Cuba’s Independent Journalists Need Us

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Writers Have Survived Threats, Exile, Imprisonment
(In Spanish, at < http://tinyurl.com/yftf4z62 >
Morgan State Looks to More Ties with Cuba
Monica Richardson Lands at USA Today as Sr. V.P.

Gannett Drops ‘Doonesbury,’ but Gossip Is Off the Mark
Black Press Gives Deadly Abuse Case Scant Coverage
Israel Challenges George Polk Award to Palestinian
Layoffs Run Amok, but These Outlets Are Still on Top
Biden: Some in Press Say They’ll Leave if Trump Wins

Short Takes: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson; Wendy Williams; broadcasters’ diversity reports; S.C. State’s proposed erasure of history, social studies majors; “Black Journalists on Journalism” podcast; Mehdi Hasan; neo-Nazis threaten reporter; racist image on Oregon station; new director of Society of Environmental Journalists; documentary series on homelessness; new leader for Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies;

Sherrilyn Ifill and ‘Charlamagne tha God’; Travis Pope; Ukrainian journalists two years after invasion; significance of radio in Africa; Mexican president and reporter’s phone number; Mozambique threats; surveillance in Zimbabwe; targeting journalist in Nigeria; killing of Myanmar journalist

Homepage photo: A man selling the newspaper Trabajadores in the town of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, in 2016. (Credit: Peter de Ruier/Wikimedia Commons)

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The award-winning report “Living from garbage” was conducted as part of an investigative journalism workshop organized by Espacio Público. It revealed how in the largest garbage dump in Cuba, with 52 million cubic meters of solid waste, people eat and sleep in filth.

Writers Have Survived Threats, Exile, Imprisonment

By Julio A. Rojas (pictured)

“Cuba’s new Penal Code, which was approved in May but came into force on 1 December, risks further entrenching long-standing limitations on freedom of expression and assembly and is a chilling prospect for independent journalists, activists, and anyone critical of the authorities,” Amnesty International declared in December 2022.

A little over a year later, Amnesty’s fears have come true.

Independent journalists on the island have been threatened with prison, and some reporters have been forced into exile. Press freedom organizations have called Cuba one of the worst countries in the hemisphere — if not the worst — repressing freedom of expression.

All this is in keeping with the tenets of the Cuban Revolution, led in 1959 by the late Fidel Castro, who ruled the country from 1959 to 2008. “The father of the Cuban revolution imposed a climate of censorship and used often violent methods to prevent the circulation of any news and information at variance with that provided by the state media,” Reporters Without Borders wrote in 2016.

Still, there were small breakthroughs. In 2014, the Netherlands-backed organization RNW Media created El Toque Cuba, which became one of Cuba’s main independent media platforms, overcoming a multitude of obstacles to do so. El Toque was significant in adding to the diversity of voices within the digital media that publish for Cubans.

But by August 2022, the political police had pressured a group of nine journalists to desist from collaborating.

Cuba is a country without anything resembling journalism. It is a state that practices a cruel surveillance of communications, including the internet, and the government has sent an undetermined number of journalists into exile. Its repression machinery does not stop with threatening, persecuting and imprisoning all those who dissent from government policies.

The international community must continue strong surveillance of the island’s regime and apply serious international sanctions for repressing freedom of expression and information. 

Send human rights rapporteurs who do real work. Don’t be influenced by the smokescreen hiding the lies. In international human rights forums, demand the release of political prisoners and independent journalists.
One of the labels most used by harassed Cuban reporters is “#Journalism is not a crime.”

Before approval of the new Penal Code, there was Decree Law 370, specifically section i) of Article 68, which considers it a violation to “disseminate, through public networks of transmission of data, information contrary to social interest, morality, good customs and integrity of people.” The ambiguity of the section is convenient for the Government; The fines for offenders are 3,000 CUP (Cuban peso), or $120 U.S.

Several journalists have said that under the new penal code, during interrogations, they were threatened with prison under article 143 of the penal code of 2022. It establishes sentences of four to 10 years for those who “on their own or in the name of non-governmental organizations, international institutions . . . support, encourage, finance, provide, receive or have in your possession funds, resources material or financial, in order to finance activities against the State and its constitutional order.”

Some of the threatened communicators tell me that their independent status is what differentiates them from government journalists, and they like the difference. They say those who work for the government are spokespersons for a regime without freedom of expression.

They cherish the value we have as independent communicators. Despite threats of going to prison and in some cases, enduring beatings, we continue reporting violations by the regime of all freedoms.

Independent journalists are truthful in our work. Our sources are reliable and take the risk of giving us accurate information about the corruption that exists within all levels of government.

Frank Pais Orthopedic Hospital in Havana is “the largest and most complete hospital complex in the world dedicated to orthopedic, traumatological, reconstructive and rehabilitative surgery of the osteomyoarticular system, in addition to being the headquarters of the Latin American School of Orthopedics and Traumatology.”

I cannot fail to mention that several of my own works uncovered diversion of resources in a bus terminal, and in the Orthopedic Hospital Frank País, a warehouse full of children’s toys and candy.

The Frank País Orthopedic Hospital is described as “the largest and most complete hospital complex in the world dedicated to orthopedic, traumatological, reconstructive and rehabilitative surgery of the osteomyoarticular system, in addition to being the headquarters of the Latin American School of Orthopedics and Traumatology.”

Everything was ruined by the poor management of the premises. In some cases those responsible were punished and expelled from their workplaces by the Communist Party, a hospital nurse says.

The party organization lamented that that they had to find out about these unfortunate events and penalize those responsible because of independent journalists, “enemies of revolution.”

Julio Antonio Rojas is an independent journalist in Cuba.

Michael Cottman, center, is flanked by Dean Jackie Jones, second from left, and Juan Rodriguez Cabrera, president of the Cuban Book Institute in Havana. Cottman is a co-author of “Say Their Names: How Black Lives Came to Matter in America.”

Morgan State Looks to More Ties with Cuba

Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism & Communication, which took students and faculty to Cuba under founding dean DeWayne Wickham, is considering another collaboration.

“On Wednesday, Michael Cottman, SGJC assistant to the dean for special programs and projects, and I met with Mr. Juan Rodriguez Cabrera, President of the prestigious Cuban Book Institute which oversees the Havana International Book Fair, Cuba’s largest and most popular annual cultural event,” Jackie Jones, dean of the school, wrote on LinkedIn.

“It was an opportunity to discuss a wide range of topics and for Prof. Cottman to speak about his appearance at this year’s book fair, at which he was one of just 2 U.S. authors presenting. We also discussed a potential collaboration with Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism & Communication.”

Jones did not say whether press freedom issues were among those discussed. After a research visit in December 2022, she said, “It was a brief and jam-packed schedule, so we didn’t have time to explore more contemporary issues. We hope to have more time on a subsequent trip.”

Last June, the Cuban government issued a news release celebrating Wickham and a delegation he led.

Salvador Valdés Mesa, Political Bureau member and vice president of the Republic, “praised the variety of social, civil and racial issues that Mr. Wickham addresses and actively acts upon on a permanent basis and thanked him for his work in favor of Cuba-U.S. relations and against the blockade, ‘the most serious obstacle to Cuban can-do nowadays’, he stressed,” the release said. Wickham called the meeting “a great honor” and “was conferred the status of Guest Professor by the University of Havana.” There was no indication that issues of press freedom or human rights were raised.

Wickham later released the winter 2023 issue of the Morgan Global Journalism Review, centered on Cuba. Articles include “Little Known Afro-Cuban Leaders that African Americans Should Know,” by Wickham, “Cuba’s New Constitution and Supreme Court,” by Elaine Jones and Wade Henderson, and “My Up-Close Look at the Damage Done by the U.S. Blockade” by Cottman.

Monica Richardson, then Miami Herald executive editor, and former managing editor Rick Hirsch, who retired in 2021, celebrate the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize win for breaking news, May 13, 2022. (Credit: Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald)

Monica Richardson Lands at USA Today as Sr. V.P.

Monica Richardson, who in a surprise move stepped down this month as vice president for local news for the McClatchy Co., is joining the Gannett Co. “to lead USA TODAY’s award-winning newsroom as Senior Vice President effective April 1,” Gannett announced Friday. 

The current leader of the newsroom, Editor-in-Chief Terence Samuel (pictured), will report to Richardson.

“Richardson will work closely to extend the reach of the Nation’s Newspaper and invigorate USA TODAY’s portfolio” and will report to the chief content officer, Kristin Roberts, the release said.

Separately, longtime newsroom leader Hollis R. Towns (pictured), who stepped down in April after 18 years with Gannett, was named vice president of content [and] editor in chief of Alabama Media Group (al.com), that company announced Thursday.

Towns had been a visiting professor and consultant at Fort Valley State University in his hometown of Fort Valley, Ga., spending “quite a bit of time working with students and helping the university to reimagine its Media Studies program,” Towns wrote on LinkedIn in October.

 At Alabama Media Group, Towns replaces Kelly Ann Scott, who left in October to become editor in chief of the Houston Chronicle.

Gannett called Richardson, who became the first Black top editor at the Miami Herald when she began that job on Jan. 1, 2021, “a seasoned professional with a proven 30-year long track record of devising strategies for digital audience growth and leading cross divisional collaborations,” adding that “Richardson is primed to spearhead dramatic and long-term growth across the enterprise. Her various accolades include receiving two Pulitzer Prize honors as well as National Press Foundation Editor of the Year.”

The release also said Richardson would “translate a growing audience into a successful, diversified content monetization strategy to reestablish USA TODAY as the most relevant, far-reaching media organization in the country.”

(See https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/strip/archive/2024/2/18 for enlargement)

Gannett Drops ‘Doonesbury,’ but Gossip Is Off Mark

“A recent social media outcry over the latest Doonesbury comic strip by Garry Trudeau has led a number of posters online to believe that the strip, a criticism of teaching restrictions in Florida schools, was ‘banned’ by Gannett, the United States’ largest newspaper publisher (in terms of circulation) due to the subject of the new strip.

“Cracked did a whole article titled Conservative Newspaper Conglomerate Proved Their Opponents’ Point When They Banned This ‘Doonesbury’ Comic Strip,'” Brian Cronin wrote Thursday for CBR, which reports comics industry news.

“However, the reality is that the strip had already been dropped by all Gannett-owned newspapers weeks before this newest strip was released. Doonesbury, the first comic strip to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, was one of a number of newspaper comic strips to lose its spot in Gannett-owned newspapers due to a unified approach by Gannett towards the ‘funny pages’ of its newspapers. . . .”

Gannett spokesperson Audrey Pass messaged Journal-isms Wednesday, “A revitalization of our comics was announced and implemented over the last several months which includes Doonesbury. Refreshing our comics provides a consistent and modern presentation for our audience while incorporating beloved favorites. Sharing an example column which ran in the Arizona Republic when the announcement was made.”

Republic Executive Editor Greg Burton wrote, “Beginning Monday, Jan. 29, you’ll find the same number of weekday strips, 22, with a handful of comics replaced by ‘Jump Start,’ ‘Ziggy,’ ‘Crabgrass,’ ‘Crankshaft,’ ‘Baldo,’ ‘Frank & Ernest’ and ‘Born Loser.’ Sunday’s in-living-color comics section will be remixed by a few departures and the additions of ‘Peanuts,’ ‘Jump Start,’ ‘Ziggy,’ ‘Marmaduke,’ ‘Crankshaft,’ ‘Baldo,’ ‘Frank & Ernest’ and ‘Born Loser.’ (“Jump Start,”  “Baldo” and “Crabgrass” are drawn by cartoonists of color, Robb Armstrong, Hector Cantú and Tauhid Bondia respectively.)

“To make way for the new, we must let go of a few beloved comics. The strips being replaced are ‘Andy Capp,’ ‘B.C.,’ ‘Carpe Diem,’ ‘Doonesbury,’ ‘Drabble,’ ‘F Minus,’ ‘Fred Basset,’ ‘Macanudo,’ ‘Mother Goose,’ ‘Mutts,’ ‘Rose is Rose,’ “The Other Coast’ and ‘Wallace the Brave.’ “

As the outcry over the missing Feb. 18 “Doonesbury” demonstrates, however, Trudeau’s strip is not just another comic strip.

As Jon Kalish reported for NPR in 2021 in commemorating the strip’s 50th anniversary, “Although Trudeau has opposed most American military interventions of the last 50 years, he developed great respect for the men and women who have served in the all-volunteer armed services. Col. William Nash, a fan of the comic strip, arranged to have Trudeau snuck into Kuwait in the aftermath of the first Gulf War so the cartoonist could get a sense of military life. . . .

“Doonesbury is credited with being the first major comic strip to have a gay character. Its stories about the AIDS epidemic were criticized by some gay activists but when the character Andy Lippincott succumbed to AIDS in 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an obituary for Lippincott. . . .

“Trudeau embraced the feminist cause through the character of Joanie Caucus. . . .

“At its height, the strip was carried by nearly 2,000 papers, some on their editorial pages. But Trudeau takes issue with the perception that Doonesbury is a political comic.

“He stopped drawing the daily strip in 2014 to focus on television writing and on the Sunday comic, which has primarily focused on politics over the past four years. . . .”

The “PBS NewsHour,” without discussing the particulars of the Minnesota case, used the shootings as a springboard to talk about domestic violence.

Black Press Gives Deadly Abuse Case Scant Coverage

“Officials confirmed Tuesday that Shannon Cortez Gooden killed himself after fatally shooting two Burnsville police officers and a medic during a standoff over the weekend,” Paul Walsh wrote Wednesday for the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

“In a news release issued before dawn, the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office said Gooden, 38, died by suicide with a single gunshot to the head inside the house in the 12600 block of S. 33rd Avenue.”

Reg Chapman of WCCO, based in the Twin Cities, wrote Friday, “The lives of three children are forever changed after being in the house when their father opened fire, killing three first responders in Burnsville.

“Noemi Torres says her three children ages 15, 14 and 12 are mourning the death of their father and the lives lost during a shootout at their Burnsville Home.”

Seven children, ranging in age from 2 to 15, were inside the home when Gooden “engaged law enforcement in an hours-long standoff. Gooden eventually killed himself in front of two of the kids, according to Noemi Torres,” Stephen Swanson reported for WCCO. “All made it out of the home safely after experiencing unfathomable trauma.”

Torres’ 12-year-old later told her that her father asked, “Do you want to go with me?,” which she took to mean to also die, Mara H. Gottfried reported Monday, updated Tuesday, for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

” ‘They’re taking it one day at a time,’ said Torres. ‘They’re still pretty much in the same state of shock and disbelief, and not having their dad here, [it’s] like a realization they’re mourning their dad, ‘ ” Chapman continued.  A family member has created a GoFundMe campaign to help.

Gooden is Black, but the website of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which supplies stories to publishers of the nation’s Black press, did not carry the story, which broke on Monday and was part of the national network newscasts, with Gooden’s picture.

BlackPressUSA, the NNPA site, featured, “MLK Save-A-Lot Closing Feb. 16, Plunging South Dallas Deeper into Food Insecurity.” Likewise the local Black newspaper, the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, on Thursday was leading with “The G.I. Bill’s role in wealth inequality.”

Publisher Tracey Williams-Dillard, CEO and publisher, did not respond to a request for comment.

The story touches on issues of mental health, domestic abuse and gun violence inside the Black community and outside it. Gooden had previous convictions for violent crimes and was barred from owning firearms.

On Tuesday, the “PBS NewsHour,” without discussing the particulars of this case, used it as a springboard to talk about domestic violence.

The WCCO stories end with this notice: “If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or suicidal crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.”

 

A Polk Award went to VICE’s coverage of Russia’s Wagner Group, a mercenary force that operated in the Central African Republic. Today, Russia is offering governments in Africa a “regime survival package” in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources, a major new report has found. “Internal Russian government documents, seen by the BBC, also detail how it is working to change mining laws in West Africa, with the ambition of dislodging Western companies from an area of strategic importance . . .  This is part of the process of the Russian government taking over the businesses of the Wagner mercenary group, broken up after a failed coup in June 2023,” the BBC reported. (Credit: (YouTube)

Israel Challenges George Polk Award to Palestinian

Five recipients of the 2023 George Polk Awards, announced Monday by Long Island University, were honored for coverage of the Israel/Gaza and Russia/Ukraine wars, but Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed one selection Friday as “handing a top prize to a Palestinian photojournalist who, it claimed, has public connections to Hamas and knew in advance of Hamas’s plans to attack Israel on October 7,” the Times of Israel reported Saturday.

The ministry was referring to Yousef Masoud, who has worked as a freelancer for The New York Times since shortly after the war began.

The New York Times responded, “The accusation that anyone at The New York Times had advance knowledge of the Hamas attacks or accompanied Hamas terrorists during the attacks is untrue and outrageous. It is reckless to make such allegations, putting our journalists on the ground in Israel and Gaza at risk. The Times has extensively covered the Oct. 7 attacks and the war with fairness, impartiality, and an abiding understanding of the complexities of the conflict.”

The Times said it had reviewed Masoud’s work for The Associated Press on Oct. 7 and determined that “he was doing what photojournalists always do during major news events, documenting the tragedy as it unfolded.” The accusation is not new. The London Telegraph reported on Nov. 10, “New York Times and CNN deny their Gazan freelancers knew about Hamas plan to attack Israel.”

In announcing the award for photojournalism, the Polk committee said, the award for went  to Samar Abu Elouf and Masoud (pictured) “of The New York Times for chronicling Israel’s bombardment and invasion of their homeland, Gaza. The two photographed the conflict from its opening hours on Oct. 7 until they escaped the territory exactly two months later. Under harrowing circumstances, they captured gripping and unforgettable images. Of frightened children looking skyward toward an Israeli plane. Of bodies pulled from the rubble of flattened buildings. Of a little boy touching the bloodied face of his dead baby sister. And of the chaos of hospitals overwhelmed by dazed, gravely injured patients.”

Other awardees include:

“When an individual died at the hands of police, the investigators would interview the next of kin without telling them that their relative was dead until the end of the interview. Police agencies later used the negative information about the deceased they had gleaned from families to protect themselves from lawsuits.”

On Friday, Peter White reported for Deadline that, “Beleaguered youth-skewing media company Vice is eliminating ‘several hundred positions’ and moving away from online news.”

Mascot for the Feb. 27 Journal-isms Roundtable on the state of the news industry (details). On Wednesday, Press Forward, the coalition investing more than $500 million to strengthen communities and local news, announced that 11 communities are joining its network of local chapters. They are in Colorado, Lancaster, Pa., Lexington, Ky., Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, South Florida and Wyoming.

Layoffs Run Amok, but These Outlets Still on Top

“The media sector keeps taking it on the chin, with fresh rounds of layoffs landing in early 2024,” Sam Becker reported Friday for Fast Company. “In January alone, hundreds of jobs were cut at numerous outlets, as the media sector at large continues to contract across the spectrum.”

The turmoil has prompted a Journal-isms Roundtable this Tuesday, Feb. 27, on “Who will be next, and what are you going to do about it?,” a Zoom session to be simulcast at 7 p.m. Eastern on Facebook; and a list in the Fast Company story of the most recent layoffs. Compilations of the top U.S. newspapers by circulation; the top magazines; biggest paywalled news websites; and top radio podcasts among African Americans were in a few cases also prompted by the turmoil.

Some lists come with caveats.

Biggest paywalled news websites in the world:

List continues here

Top U.S. newspapers in print circulation

List continues here

Top 10 U.S. Magazine Media Brand Audiences for Q4 2023

List continues here

Top 10 podcasts popular among Black listeners in the U.S.

List continues here


In a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, things turn around for a struggling man (Shane Gillis) when he’s gifted a pair of magical sneakers from Donald Trump. Fox News contributor Raymond Arroyo said the new shoe line was a way for Trump to connect with Black voters because “they love sneakers.” On MSNBC, contributor Michael Steele, a former Republican National Committee chair, responded to Arroyo’s comment with, “Somebody said the quiet part out loud on what the big sneaker strategy is really all about.” (Credit: YouTube)

Biden: Some in Press Say They’ll Leave if Trump Wins

“As he spoke at a Bay Area fundraiser today, Joe Biden spotted Katie Couric among the attendees,” Ted Johnson reported Thursday for Deadline.

“Two of your former colleagues, not at the same network, personally told me if he wins, they will have to leave the country because he’s threatened to put them in jail,” Biden said, referring to Donald Trump, Johnson wrote, quoting a pool report.

Couric’s television colleagues have some basis for their fear.

Oliver Darcy reported Dec. 7 for CNN, “In a particularly disturbing conversation this week, Trump’s former top political strategist, Steve Bannon, and former National Security Council adviser, Kash Patel, openly discussed plans to target the press.

“Bannon, who underscored that such promises are ‘not just rhetoric’ and that they are ‘absolutely dead serious’ about seeking revenge against journalists, asked Patel, who would likely serve in a second Trump administration, whether he could ‘deliver the goods.’ Patel responded affirmatively, vowing that a re-empowered Trump would indeed ‘come after’ the press.

“Bannon did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday and a spokesperson for Patel claimed he was only referring to targeting journalists ‘who break the law.’ Regardless, Trump has himself said he will target news organizations, including most recently lashing out at Comcast over NBCU News Group’s coverage of him, saying the company should be ‘investigated.’ ”

On Biden’s remarks to Couric, Trump campaign spokesman Steve Cheung said in a statement, “Just another example of journalists who have overinflated egos making themselves the center of attention because they have hyperactive imaginations.“

Separately, Leah Donnella, writing Feb. 16 for NPR’s “Code Switch,” said the focus on Biden’s and Trump’s ages can “have consequences outside of our immediate political circumstances.

“As it turns out, fixating on someone’s age can actually put them at higher risk for exhibiting negative behaviors associated with that age. It’s called stereotype threat.

“For instance, when people are told that members of their age group are likely to struggle with things like memory and word recall, they perform worse on memory tests than people who are primed with information about the vast cognitive capabilities of people their age. Similar studies have been done with gender, race, and many other categories, and guess what? Being told you’re going to be bad at something is a remarkably consistent self-fulfilling prophecy. . . .”

Short Takes

 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks to the media after a City Council meeting Feb. 15. (Credit: Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times)

 

Yolanda, a homeless woman in Chicago, is the subject of a WTTW “Firsthand: Homeless” documentary. The station hosted a launch event attended by Yolanda, a grandmother of four who is the subject of one of the documentaries. (Credit: Lloyd DeGrane/WTTW)

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Richard Prince’s Journal-isms originates from Washington. It began in print before most of us knew what the internet was, and it would like to be referred to as a “column.” Any views expressed in the column are those of the person or organization quoted and not those of any other entity. Send tips, comments and concerns to Richard Prince at journal-isms+owner@groups.io

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