The importance of the implementation of Law 162/2023 on Social Communication and its transversal implication in the different areas of economic, political, social, media and communicational life were discussed today during a working meeting in Ciego de Ávila.
The meeting was attended by Alfonso Noya Martínez, president of the Institute of Information and Social Communication (IICS), together with other directors of that institution, chaired by Nexy Véliz Naranjo, member of the Provincial Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
At the meeting, which was attended by media executives, political and government officials, representatives of mass organisations, and communicators from various entities, the importance of various actors in the effective confirmation of social communication as a strategic pillar of political and government management was highlighted.
«It is about guaranteeing a citizen’s right of access to information,» commented the IICS president.
The preparation of existing human resources and the strengthening of alliances with the Union of Journalists of Cuba, the Cuban Association of Social Communicators and the University of Ciego de Avila Máximo Gómez Báez were part of the results of the Provincial Directorate of Information and Social Communication in 2024.
The positive balance of the work during the previous year was the completion of the staff in the main municipality and the integrated work with the Ideological Department of the Provincial PCC.
However, difficulties persist, such as filling the necessary positions with the required personnel in several municipalities, of which only 16 are occupied for a 44 per cent completion rate, as well as four territories in Avila that do not even have a head of department.
Reina Torres Pérez, director of the Provincial Directorate of Information and Social Communication in Ciego de Ávila, commented that the distortion persists in that the entities and organisations do not have the posts to manage the communication processes or the employees do not have the necessary skills.
During the meeting they also discussed the management of procedures and advice for the use of communication resources based on the provisions of the current regulations, as well as the importance of preparing for issues related to advertising and sponsorship.
Xenia López González, general director of advertising and sponsorship at the IICS, said that companies should see these issues as an opportunity to reach more customers with their products and services, making them aware that it is an investment and not an expense, always in compliance with current legislation.
Eufemio Ramos Carabeo, member of the provincial team of Information and Social Communication, referred to the fact that it is now more important than ever to bring media audiences closer to the problems of Cuban society so that they can reflect them in their content.
For his part, Roberto Carlos Delgado Burgos, director of the newspaper Invasor, pointed out that sometimes institutions and entities publish information of great public interest only through their social networks, without taking into account the fundamental media.
From the debate that arose, he highlighted the validity of not supplanting the functions of each of the members of the Social Communication system, because each one responds to different spheres.
Adrián Fonseca Quesada, an official of the Central Committee of the PCC, said that the use of Social Communication is aimed at the transformation of the nation, towards the achievement of a better, fairer, more democratic country with greater citizen participation.
Fonseca Quesada commented that the effectiveness of meetings of this type throughout Cuba lies in understanding the why and wherefore of Social Communication in the different social, political and productive processes.
The municipalities of Ciego de Avila and Baraguá were recognised for their work during 2024, as well as other entities with good communication practices such as the Provincial Directorate of Education, the Ciego de Avila Electricity Company and the Construction Materials Company (Avilmat).