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Essay on The Violation of Human Rights in Cuba

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The Violation of Human Rights in Cuba

One of the largest Human Rights violations occurring in the world today is on the small island of Cuba. The government there is repressing the civil and political rights of all it citizens mainly the right to free speech and free press.
Article 53 of the Cuban Constitution provides: “Freedom of speech and press are recognized for citizens consistent with the purposes of socialist society. The material conditions for their exercise are present by the fact that the press, radio, television, movies, and others mass media are state-owned or socially owned, and can in no event be privately owned, which ensures their use exclusively in the service of the working people and in the interest of society. …show more content…

An official journalist in Cuba cannot choose which story to write, and cannot express their own opinion. In Cuba there is no freedom of the press that would allow for different political views, which are fundamental for a democratic regime. Radio, television, and the print media are rather instruments of ideological imposition that follow the dictates of the group in power and are used to transmit the messages from that group to the grass roots and the intermediate levels. The main newspapers in Cuba reflect only the viewpoints of the government. Only to a very limited extent do they report on the debates that take place within the high-level officials of the state. As a result, self- criticism is also limited. It is a role the press plays with a view to transmitting the grievances of the grassroots to the top officials in power. Nonetheless, in no way do these grievances overstep the limits of ideological conformity. In no way can they oppose, or become spokespersons advocating a radical change in the prevailing regime, or that hold upper-level government officials accountable in relation to substantive political issues.
The Castro regime maintains a firm stance against independent journalism. In June 1998 the government labeled Cuba's small group of independent reporters “self titled independent journalists’ dedicated to defaming our people by means of the radio stations that broadcast from Miami against Cuba.” (Human Rights Watch

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