Cuban Parliament analyzes financial situation and media law [NEWS]

HAVANA (AP) — More than 400 deputies of Cuba’s National Assembly discussed Thursday in an extraordinary session a media law that maintains the leadership of the Communist Party but, at the same time, allows sponsorship and advertising for the first time in decades.

The session began with the presence of former President Raúl Castro and current President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, began the appearance.

The press and communications sector is often a contentious area in the Caribbean nation, where there are no privately owned newspapers or television stations and the most far-reaching belong to the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC). Critics accuse them of being more interested in propaganda than balanced coverage of the facts, but their defenders say action is necessary in a context of increasing manipulation of information.

The draft that will become law this Thursday does not contemplate the existence of the so-called independent media -especially the Internet portals that have multiplied in recent years-.

The initiative will be the first specific law for the media since the triumph of the revolution in 1959 and is due to a legislative renewal in accordance with the new constitution of 2019.

The deputies held some meetings in the previous days to analyze the draft.

The legislators will also analyze the current economic situation, characterized by the scarcity of goods and services and the difficulties to recover national income due to the drop in tourism, the most dynamic sector on the island.