Cuban reporters unmuzzled. Perhaps.

NPR keeps me company while I cook dinner.
I had to put my knife down to take in the whole of this story.

Cuban journalists who work at the paper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel Youth) are doing actual investigative pieces. The word “journalist” is used loosely when it comes to the island nation, which controls the media and, well, everything else.

As you listen to the NPR story you can hear the joy in the reporters’ voices. The yee haw of being able to actually do their jobs. Fabulous, really fabulous.

From the NPR story:

“For years, Fidel Castro told Cubans that their problems were the result of the U.S. trade embargo, the loss of Soviet aid or globalization: There was always an excuse. But Herminio Camacho, deputy editor of Juventud Rebelde, says it’s time for Cuba to acknowledge its own failings.
“These articles aim at raising people’s awareness,” Camacho says. “People need to know that things don’t have to be like this here. We’re bringing up problems that can’t be blamed on our shortages, or on outside forces, or the embargo, or the world situation.”

We in the Fourth Estate (I still claim ink in the veins) get bashed a lot. Some deserved, of course. But, without a free press, without the kind of people who revel in the truth, many of us would be much, much worse off.

Getting down from soapbox now.

Go listen to the story. It’s wonderful and inspiring. Makes me hope.