Cuba, the Media, and the Challenge of Impartiality

Critics of the Cuban Revolution often point to a lack of freedom of the press as proof of totalitarianism. In this illuminating book, Salim Lamrani thoroughly demonstrates how Spain’s prestigious newspaper of record, El País, consistently misinforms about Cuba, vilifying its leaders and praising its most transparent detractors. Cuba, the Media, and the Challenge of Impartiality is brilliant and important—for understanding Cuba and for understanding the challenges to truth in information.

—Margaret Randall, author, Che On My Mind

Whether it’s Madrid, Paris, London, or New York, after a lecture, when questions are raised by the educated classes, more likely than not, they reflect a reading from the ‘papers of record’—El País, Le Monde, The Financial Times, or the New York Times. If the topic is Cuba, the questions or commentaries deal with human rights, the ‘dissidents,’ the ‘failed social experiment’—and mirror the biases and fabrications of the ‘papers of record.’ Professor Lamrani challenges one such newspaper, El País’s reportage of Cuba. Through a systematic presentation and analysis of eight issues over two decades, he demonstrates how El País distorts Cuban reality, omits vital data, and fabricates stories. His method is to present the official version and then to marshal facts and figures which critique and counterpose another vision of Cuba as a vibrant, dynamic, and just society. This book is an essential text for all readers of public affairs and is an important textbook for courses in journalism and media studies.

—James Petras, Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York

Salim Lamrani is a treasury of powerful factual information.

—Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States