A monitoring conducted by SELMEC in collaboration with the Women’s News Service of Latin America and the Caribbean (SEMLac) and the WACC (World Association for Christian Communication) analyzed how the Cuban press addresses the issue of male violence, revealing how media representation remains fragmented, episodic and devoid of a real gender approach. The investigation, which adapted the methodology of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)examined almost two thousand articles published by four online newspapers– Cubadebate, Rebel Youth, Girón e 26 – in the period between November 2024 and March 2025, evaluating frequency, contents, authors and languages.
Only 0.86% of monitored content explicitly deals with gender violence. In most cases, the theme emerges only in conjunction with symbolic days such as November 25th o l’8 Marchconfirming an “intermittent” coverage that reduces the problem to an event and not a structural phenomenon. The news focuses on isolated events, often told with imprecise language – terms such as “crime of passion” or “domestic violence” are still common – and without references to the cultural and social causes of violence.
70% of the texts analyzed are signed by female journalists, but their production remains confined to “social” or “cultural” themes. Men still dominate the political, economic and sporting sections. This thematic segregation reproduces in journalism the same asymmetries of power that the research attempts to unmask. The work of the Cuban media is also hampered by structural barriers. The journalists interviewed mention the lack of specific training (46%), the shortage of time and resources (53%) and the low editorial interest (36%) among the main obstacles.
Also serious is the almost total absence of data (51%) and editorial lines that orient towards ethical and continuous information. There is a lack of useful information for victims – emergency numbers, listening centers, support networks – and rarely is a voice given to survivors or civil society organizations.
The monitoring also reports forms of symbolic violencesuch as the use of sensational images, revictimization, and perpetrator-centered storytelling.
In the most serious cases, the representation tends to naturalize violence, reinforcing gender stereotypes and patriarchal roles. A part of journalism, the report underlines, thus ends up being not only a witness, but reproducer of stereotypes.
Despite the limitations, the report recognizes some progress compared to the past: awareness of the role of the media and the commitment of some newspapers, such as Rebel Youthin treating the topic with greater sensitivity. However, the challenge remains transform visibility into understandingto move from the event to the analysis, from the single case to the denunciation of the structural causes. As the research concludes, «the media can be part of the problem or the solution». The difference will be made by the ability of Cuban journalism – and not only – to adopt an approach feminist, intersectional and less episodiccapable of contributing to the construction of a culture of non-violence.
The author is president of Cospe
