A look at media in Cuba

Abstract

Forty years have passed since Radio Rebelde was launched in the Sierra Maestra mountains, in Eastern Cuba, at the height of the war against the Batista dictatorship. Originally the idea of Argentine‐Cuban Comandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the clandestine radio station would later grow into a network operated by the various fronts of the Rebel Army. Radio Rebelde's short‐wave signal was picked up by Cubans throughout the island. It also had listeners all over the Caribbean Basin and Latin America who followed the events unfolding on the largest Caribbean island with interest. The station's aim was to provide accurate information on the war's progress, covering the fighting in the mountains and urban areas, and exposing the blatant lies disseminated by the highly censored print and electronic media under the Batista dictatorship. The broadcasters who hosted Rebelde's nightly programs were the first to embody what would later become the raison d'etre of revolutionary Cuban journalism for years to come: disseminating the truth about the Cuban Revolution amidst never‐ending slander campaigns and constant lies.