Ignacio Ramonet’s hundred hours of interviews with Fidel have been out in Spanish for some time, and came out in English about a year ago. This is an excerpt where Fidel talks about “freedom of the press” and the concept of a cult of personality. The translation is Machetera’s though, because she doesn’t have a copy of either book yet, so it’s not really her fault if it’s better than the real thing.
Ramonet: You showed me an impressive amount of reading material which you read and consult every morning to keep up with what’s going on in the world: scores of cables and articles translated from the international press. And in regard to this, I’d like to talk for a bit about news in Cuba. The impression one has is that, although excellent journalists exist, there’s very little criticism about what’s going on in Cuba. What’s your opinion about that?
Fidel: Look, honestly, our press is not in the hands of the Revolution’s enemies, nor is it in the hands of U.S. agents. It’s in the hands of revolutionaries.
Our press is revolutionary, our journalists, in radio or television, are revolutionary. We have plenty of periodicals; each organization has its own press – the workers, the youth, the Party, the campesinos, the Armed Forces. There are scores of periodicals and all are revolutionary.
