Cuban press focuses more on country's problems
HAVANA, March 14 (Reuters) - Granma newspaper, the mouthpiece of Cuba's ruling Communist Party and former president Fidel Castro, expanded its page count from eight to 16 for the first time on Friday.
The larger edition points to changes in the Cuban press since Castro, 81 and sidelined by illness, handed over the running of Cuba in July 2006 to his brother Raul Castro, who has encouraged debate on the country's economic problems.
Granma and its sister paper, Juventud Rebelde of the Communist Youth organization, have begun to print stories on inefficiency, theft and corruption in the state-run economy.
The newspapers have long focused their criticism on Cuba's ideological enemy, the United States, and ignored negative news on Cuba. Crime stories seldom appeared in print.
Last year, Juventud Rebelde exposed the dysfunction in many state enterprises and serious problems in the delivery of dental care, and reported on widespread unemployment in Cuba.
Even top party officials are now following Raul Castro's cue and encouraging journalists to be more hard-nosed.
"The Cuban revolution needs analytical and investigative journalism that can help solve the central issues of today's society," Rolando Alfonso, head of the party's ideology department, told reporters on Thursday.
Granma is named after the yacht Fidel Castro and his guerrillas used to land in Cuba in 1956 to launch an uprising that ousted U.S. backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and turned Cuba into a Soviet ally.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union that plunged Cuba into crisis in the 1990s, the number of copies printed dropped by half to 500,000 and it was reduced to four pages due to the lack of newsprint.
Today, the newspaper is printed on North American newsprint imported from Canada and the United States.
An image of Fidel Castro and his young rebels raising their guns in the air still appears at the top of page one.
But the ailing "Comandante," who has not appeared in public since July 2006, has slipped from Granma's front page. At his own bidding, the regular "Reflections of comrade Fidel" appear on page two (http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/).
Granma's political line remains unchanged. Its front-page lead on Friday marked the 125th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx. (For more on Cuba since Fidel Castro retired, click here) (Writing by Anthony Boadle, editing by Todd Eastham)
The larger edition points to changes in the Cuban press since Castro, 81 and sidelined by illness, handed over the running of Cuba in July 2006 to his brother Raul Castro, who has encouraged debate on the country's economic problems.
Granma and its sister paper, Juventud Rebelde of the Communist Youth organization, have begun to print stories on inefficiency, theft and corruption in the state-run economy.
The newspapers have long focused their criticism on Cuba's ideological enemy, the United States, and ignored negative news on Cuba. Crime stories seldom appeared in print.
Last year, Juventud Rebelde exposed the dysfunction in many state enterprises and serious problems in the delivery of dental care, and reported on widespread unemployment in Cuba.
Even top party officials are now following Raul Castro's cue and encouraging journalists to be more hard-nosed.
"The Cuban revolution needs analytical and investigative journalism that can help solve the central issues of today's society," Rolando Alfonso, head of the party's ideology department, told reporters on Thursday.
Granma is named after the yacht Fidel Castro and his guerrillas used to land in Cuba in 1956 to launch an uprising that ousted U.S. backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and turned Cuba into a Soviet ally.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union that plunged Cuba into crisis in the 1990s, the number of copies printed dropped by half to 500,000 and it was reduced to four pages due to the lack of newsprint.
Today, the newspaper is printed on North American newsprint imported from Canada and the United States.
An image of Fidel Castro and his young rebels raising their guns in the air still appears at the top of page one.
But the ailing "Comandante," who has not appeared in public since July 2006, has slipped from Granma's front page. At his own bidding, the regular "Reflections of comrade Fidel" appear on page two (http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/).
Granma's political line remains unchanged. Its front-page lead on Friday marked the 125th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx. (For more on Cuba since Fidel Castro retired, click here) (Writing by Anthony Boadle, editing by Todd Eastham)
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