I confess that in 12 years of journalistic practice I never requested an interview so much or carried out so many coordination with a source (if it is valid to use the term in this case) to write about a so analysed matter in these times, due to its importance, as local development is.

Almost two months of unproductive efforts: calls to a corporate mobile phone, from landlines and even from my private cell phone (without putting the * 99 beforehand, I clarify), text messages, direct contact attempts ... I have not even had the luck of meet the person empowered to address the issue in the municipality (I will not mention him for ethical reasons).

Inconceivable!, it is information of public competence and sharing it is essential because I cannot imagine the implementation of a local development strategy without popular participation. It is difficult for someone to be consciously integrated into something that they do not know.

Let us also consider that the processes of economic and social transformation that are being experienced in the country require the performance of actions aimed at reporting, informing to guide, explain, argue, but also motivate and add, all essential processes in the construction of the nation we dream of.

It is not by chance that communication is one of the foundations on which government management is based, so it is understood and valued at a strategic level. The First Secretary of the Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, in his article Management of government, higher education, science, innovation and local development, recognizes with absolute clarity that “the Cuban government has declared that three are the pillars of its management: science and innovation, computerization and social communication, the three ones, in unity, were clearly expressed in the confrontation with the new coronavirus”.

On several occasions, our top leaders have insisted on the urgent need to promote social communication in its most diverse aspects, including, of course, the efficient use of the press, recognized on a global scale as the first of the powers for its ability to overcome or be equated with the rest.

Unfortunately and paradoxically, in this context, there are not a few people who remain located in key positions and evade the social commitment to communicate, inherent in their functions as cadres or public officials.

And they do it with extreme decency, with the most incredible excuses and even the greatest disrespect, because clearly they do not understand that not informing is another way of misinforming, in such turbulent times, in which official communication channels need to take the lead to face the avalanche of false content, which try to confuse and bet on the formation of an ideology incompatible with the Revolution. From this point of view, it is a way of giving space to those who intend to steal it with the purpose of frustrating our projects.

In times when journalism is called upon to accompany the dynamics of a country with a renewed discourse, limitations persist in performing as a consequence of the scarce vision of the press and its contribution, the lack of commitment or fear of taking responsibility, the inability to managers, cadres and public officials to recognize information as public law and the prevalence of retrograde conceptions about what should or should not be communicated.

How, then, can we fully fulfill the functions of informing, interpreting, giving opinions, contributing to keep alive the historical traditions of our people, and sustaining the continuity and development of our culture, education, ideology and values? How can we help social mobilization oriented towards the main economic, political and social objectives of the country? How can we investigate reality and contribute with the results to the vitality of the political system?

In the opinion of the Cuban intellectual and journalist Julio García Luis, “reducing the press to the condition of an instrument for objectives of little scope, or more or less acceptable propaganda functions, it means depriving society and its political system of the highest goals that the press can offer".

The Cuban press deserves and requires the necessary power to fulfill its social mission with honesty and professionalism, “political, moral, legal and practical power to access public information by itself wherever it may be. (...) power to investigate, to actively penetrate all those areas of the life of society that require it, to uphold the criteria derived from these searches in the service of the people, in the face of any established interests, and to anticipate and alert with well-founded forecasts the direction that certain processes can follow. (…) to act on behalf of public opinion, as direct subjects of dialogue with the Party, the State, the Government and social organizations”, as expressed in the text: Revolution, Socialism and Journalism.

We are public servants, with the mission of contributing to the support of the other rights and freedoms of citizens, of affirming fundamental human values ??such as dignity, justice, solidarity and adherence to the truth. We are an expression of democracy and participation in community affairs, builders of social consensus and civic awareness. We are the burning word of a country.