-DATE-
19911023
-YEAR-
1991
-DOCUMENT TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Castro Assesses Role of National Media
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
Havana Cuba Vision Network
-REPORT NO.-
FBIS-LAT-91-208
-REPORT DATE-
19911028
-HEADER-
*********************
Report Type:         Daily Report             AFS Number:     FL2610022791
Report Number:       FBIS-LAT-91-208          Report Date:    28 Oct 91
Report Series:       Daily Report             Start Page:     11
Report Division:     CARIBBEAN                End Page:       12
Report Subdivision:  Cuba                     AG File Flag:   
Classification:      UNCLASSIFIED             Language:       Spanish
Document Date:       23 Oct 91
Report Volume:       Monday Vol VI No 208

Dissemination:  

City/Source of Document:   Havana Cuba Vision Network

Report Name:   Latin America

Headline:   Castro Assesses Role of National Media

Author(s):   President Fidel Castro during 12 October session of the Fourth
Communist Party of Cuba Congress held at the Heredia Theater in
Santiago de Cuba-recorded]

Source Line:   FL2610022791 Havana Cuba Vision Network in Spanish 0130 GMT 23
Oct 91

Subslug:   [``Remarks'' by President Fidel Castro during 12 October session of
the Fourth Communist Party of Cuba Congress held at the Heredia
Theater in Santiago de Cuba-recorded]

-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1.  [``Remarks'' by President Fidel Castro during 12 October session of the
Fourth Communist Party of Cuba Congress held at the Heredia Theater in Santiago
de Cuba-recorded]

2.  [Text] [words indistinct] help to understand the special period.
Realistically speaking, we cannot speak clearer than we did on the first day.
[Words indistinct] many times we cannot talk about those things because it
would hurt this or that. There are many times when [words indistinct] like the
USSR and we are negotiating here and there. While we are negotiating we cannot
give a full report to the people on the problems we encounter. Just look at how
much time this has taken. We have explained this to many cadres, but the
complete report I gave the other day has not been released. It is the first
time that [words indistinct] but we could not do it [words indistinct].

3.  Right now we are asking the reporters to hold on to that.  We are asking
the reporters for their cooperation. We wish the people could be informed of
all this, but [words indistinct]. However, we must constantly be asking the
reporters to be discreet about this or that, please do not release this or
that. If it were up to me, [words indistinct] I would have liked to have the
congress broadcast in its entirety even if it were not done live, even if it
were broadcast at another hour. I would have liked our words [words
indistinct]. However, the nature of our problems, the difficulties we confront,
the battles we are waging with [words indistinct] techniques, controlling
everything to set traps and create problems for us, forces us to do things in
this manner.

4.  This is why the role the reporters play is not easy, just as the role we
play is not easy. I do believe that reporters are militants of the revolution;
that the press is an instrument of the revolution, and that the first duty of
the reporter is to support the revolution and defend the revolution as a
principle. [applause] The duty of the reporter is to report and it must abide
by that. A reporter should not tell lies, should not try to fool the people. A
reporter should be as accurate as possible. However, I do agree with Rosalia
[not further identify] that defending the revolution includes many other things
that must be studied and discussed [words indistinct]. There are ways to help
the revolution [words indistinct]. [Words indistinct] newspapers are the
property of the [word indistinct]. [applause] They cannot be owned by a
cooperative, a group of people, a collective property.  Newspapers belong to
the revolution and are for the revolution. The bourgeois press, the bourgeois
ideas [words indistinct] give maximum use [words indistinct] support the
revolutionary cause and the development of the revolutionary cause, perfecting
the use of that media.  That is what capitalism uses the newspapers for.

5.  Brother, when the United States does not want something to be reported, it
is not reported. I recall those demonstrations of hundreds of thousands in
front of the U.S. Embassy on the occasion of I do not know what, [words
indistinct], not a word of that was reported in the United States. In a
bourgeois system the media is at the service of the system. The revolution and
socialism [words indistinct] another system, especially [words indistinct]
instrument of the revolution, and I have no doubts about that. Our problem is
[word indistinct], give it the best use to defend the revolution, to help it,
to support it, to contribute to its development. That is where the problem
lies. Our reporters have to overcome this. I [words indistinct]. [Words
indistinct] responsibility to [words indistinct] of what they must do. There
are times that even I do not know what they are going to say [words
indistinct]. [Words indistinct] start their recorder and when you read what
they wrote it looks nothing like what you said. [passage indistinct]

6.  There are some new reporters who are very good, there are some very good
reporters, but sometimes they can be careless. They can be careless in the way
they draft their reports. They make mistakes [words indistinct] on the
television, some are nicely done [words indistinct]. The Central Committee must
look into this. [Words indistinct] special period. [Words indistinct] if we
want to protect the revolution and socialism that the people understand. Give
the people as much as they need to understand. We are living like in a war.
During a war all you hear are lies. What we have never done is tell a lie.  Our
war forces us to be pretty discreet and forces us to perfect the mechanisms and
methods we have to report; however, it is not easy. We must understand the
reporters and the problems they have to carry out their tasks, to carry out
their revolutionary tasks. I wish they could help us understand the situation
of the special period.

7.  I do not believe that the spirit or faith of the people should be
destroyed. The spirit and faith of the people should be lifted. They must be
instilled with trust; we must lift their morale. There is a tremendous
ideological struggle [being waged] and the enemy wants to weaken the morale of
the revolution, it wants to divide it. He [the enemy] wants to create mistrust,
uncertainty. [Words indistinct] all that will help raise morale, but with
honesty, with good work, with good information, [words indistinct] with good
procedures, with good methods.  This is what we need; it is very important.

8.  We have done our best to give the reporters what they need to work with.
All these issues [words indistinct] and we must continue. I said that [words
indistinct] within the Central Committee. We must confront many problems and
many new and changing situations. In addition to the documents, there should be
a resolution giving the new Central Committee the authority [applause] [words
indistinct] so we will not have to be convoking congresses [words indistinct].
[Words indistinct] have trust in that it will be very revolutionary; have trust
in that it will be very [words indistinct] understand that they are surrounded
by [words indistinct]. [Words indistinct] trust in how these problems will be
handled; what will be done with the workers, and let us work [words indistinct]
and the goal. We are living [words indistinct] the Central Committee must be
making decisions, the government must be making decisions [words indistinct]
firmly revolutionary.  [Words indistinct] in Marxist-Leninist hands. [applause]
-END-