The ``Regulations for Foreign Media Work in Cuba'' also caution that in case of ``natural catastrophes or contingencies that affect the country, the media will have to obey any measures adopted,'' but offer no details.
CNN correspondent Lucia Newman said the regulations merely put Cuba's longtime policy in writing.
``It's not as though we have something different,'' she said. ``They certainly make a lot of us uncomfortable, but nothing's really changed.''
The regulations, confirmed by the Foreign Ministry's International Press Center on Wednesday, appear to be based on methods Cuba has used in the past to try to control foreign coverage of the island.
While not directly censoring foreign correspondents, Havana has indirectly pressured those based in Cuba, and those who visit occasionally, to write carefully if they wish to continue covering the island.
Cuba has expelled more than a dozen Havana-based correspondents in the past 30 years -- the last about two years ago -- and denied return visas to many other visitors who filed what officials viewed as biased reports.
But the new regulations contain direct warnings of sanctions, while giving only the vaguest description of the line that will separate acceptable reports from those that might bring punishment.
Correspondents ``should act with objectivity,'' the regulations say, and ``stick strictly to the facts, in accordance with the ethical principles that govern the exercise of journalism.'' But they define neither objectivity nor ethics, a significant issue in a country where the Communist government controls all media.
Sanctions will range from verbal admonitions to the temporary or permanent suspension of a correspondent's government accreditation, which is in effect a permit to work, the regulations say.
The regulations also say that correspondents accredited to one news outlet must seek the International Press Center's permission before undertaking temporary work for any other outlet.
A report by the Spanish news agency EFE said some 30 of the 112 foreign journalists accredited in Cuba held a series of meetings in Havana over the past few days and agreed on Wednesday to express their ``concerns'' in a letter to the press center.
``The journalists' first surprise was that IPC Director Frank Gonzalez knew details of those meetings, which were held in hotels and to which no [government] official had been invited,'' EFE reported.
EFE quoted Gonzalez, a former correspondent for Cuba's Prensa Latina news agency, as saying that the regulations merely codify existing procedures ``and do not alter the procedures followed up to now.''
Other sections of the regulations set out requirements for accreditation and describe journalists' visa status as residents and the limits on hiring Cuban journalists as full-time correspondents or local assistants for foreign media.
Most of the foreign correspondents based in Cuba are from European media. CNN is the lone U.S. news outlet operating in Havana, although other American journalists can receive visitors' visas.
Material from Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald