UPEC statement: disinformation is a crime against culture

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 7 (ACN) The Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) denounced today censorship against Russia Today (RT), Sputnik and other Russian media, calling these measures an attack on culture, amplified to the point of a medieval inquisition targeted on Russian literature and other artistic expressions.

UPEC also warns about this war against information, honest journalism and culture, which destroys concepts and values conquered by humanity throughout its history.

Because of its importance, we reproduce below the full text of the statement:

UPEC Statement: Disinformation is a crime against culture.

Disconnecting Russia from the world's communication platforms, banning its media, condemning journalists for not joining the unleashed Russophobia, is at least a violation of enshrined rights, such as being informed by contrasting different approaches, and of the free expression of millions of people who will lack all the necessary elements to evaluate the conflict.

These measures, never used against the multiple invasions of numerous countries by the United States, are also an attack on culture, in this case, amplified to the point of a medieval inquisition targeted on Russian literature and other artistic expressions, a kind of neo-barbarism inconceivable in the supposedly cultured Europe.

Thanks to the censorship against Russia Today (RT), Sputnik and other Russian media, the only narrative that seems to exist is that of Washington. Together with NATO, the United States has proclaimed itself the judge of global truth and its platforms tag the profiles of journalists working for Russian media, but also those of subcontracted freelance journalists and technicians. Nobody dared to do this with CNN and Fox News when they made possible the disinformation that ended with the massacre of a million people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya and in a bloody chaos that still continues. As if that were not enough, they have imposed visibility restrictions on Russia and tampered with its presence on Internet search engines that maintain an almost absolute oligopoly, all manipulated from San Francisco.

Our peaceful vocation, our solidarity with the victims of the conflict, also makes it necessary to warn about this war against information, honest journalism and culture, a war that destroys concepts and values conquered by all humanity throughout its history, denies the most elementary democratic principles and reveals the dictatorship of big capital according to its interests.

The world is facing more than one war, and our refusal to accept them must include them all. Disinformation is a crime against culture, one that in the present circumstances favors the rise of neo-fascism and other evils.
National Presidency of the Union of Cuban Journalists