Related videos:
Canal Habana, the provincial television center of the Cuban capital, posted a call on Facebook this Saturday to recruit new talent for its journalism team, at a time when Cuban state media are facing an unprecedented structural crisis in attracting and retaining professionals.
The call from the channel comes weeks after the official portal Cubadebate published a job offer in April for two web journalist-editors with a salary of just 5,060 Cuban pesos per month, equivalent to less than 10 dollars at the informal exchange rate, which sparked a wave of mockery on social media.
The comments came swiftly. "Only two requirements: one, don't think; two, publish what you're told," wrote a user.
Another was more direct: "You are not looking for journalists. You are looking for parrots that repeat what you tell them to say."
The vocational crisis is equally alarming. In 2025, only two 11th-grade students registered for the aptitude test for Journalism at the Manuel Ascunce Domenech campus of the University of Ciego de Ávila, and only 49% of those enrolled manage to graduate, with most dropping out due to economic reasons.
Additionally, starting from the 2024-2025 academic year, compulsory military service became a prerequisite that cannot be avoided in order to pursue a degree in Journalism, applicable to both men and women, which is unprecedented in other Cuban university programs.
The second aptitude test for Journalism has been scheduled for May 28 by the Faculty of Communication at the University of Havana.
The labor market also does not help retain those who do graduate. "I burned the midnight oil for five years only to end up in a small and medium-sized enterprise," is the phrase that sums up the experience of many young journalism graduates in Cuba.
The sports journalist Armando Campuzano, with over 30 years in official media, described in May 2025 a "toxic and ruthless work environment" at Cuban Television, characterized by betrayal, opportunism, and blind obedience to the political hierarchy.
The energy crisis further exacerbates the situation. In May, power outages left up to 46% of the country without electricity during peak hours, emptying the audience for the very media that are now out looking for journalists.
In March, the crisis forced Radiocuba to reduce its television broadcasts to just eight hours a day due to a shortage of diesel.
In this context, the opening of Canal Habana to "new talents" reads more as a sign of staff shortages than of editorial expansion.
Cuba ranks 160 out of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, being the worst in Latin America, in a system where, as independent journalist Mónica Baró, a graduate of the University of Havana, warned: "There is no training in truthful journalism in Cuba."
Filed under: