By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, June 26 (Reuters) - Cuba's communist authorities, widely criticised overseas for their firm control of the island's media, on Friday condemned the alleged "falsehoods" and "mercenary" actions of local independent journalists.
A column in the international edition of the Cuban Communist Party's publication Granma denounced "the lies, immoralities and poorness of the so-called independent Cuban journalists with the aim of making money at all cost.''
Representatives of the roughly 40 independent Cuban journalists working outside the state-owned media, and generally published abroad, interpreted the article as part of a new "ideological offensive" against them.
"The government is showing a pitiless, aggressive attitude against the independent press," said Raul Rivero, founder of the largest private group of journalists, Cuba Press.
Granma highlighted the recent case of a false interview with the head of Cuba's Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Jaime Ortega, that appeared in the Spanish newspaper ABC.
Ortega denied the interview, submitted by a Cuban collaborator for ABC, ever took place, and the newspaper subsequently apologised and stopped using the author.
That article was written ``with the obvious intention of creating focuses of tension between the Cuban Church and state after the successful visit of the pope (in January),'' wrote columnist Juan Marrero in the Granma piece, which was also reproduced in state news agency Prensa Latina.
``This is no exception,'' the article added, saying the ABC incident illustrated a general lack of professionalism. ``These mercenaries of journalism do anything or say anything as long as they receive a few dollars or create a reputation as 'anti- communist fighters' so as to obtain a residency visa in a highly-developed country, preferably the United States.''
Rivero said he and other independent journalists also condemned the false interview and it was ``absurd'' to condemn all non-state reporters due to one mistake. ``We are fighting for professionalism and independence,'' he added.
Cuba's ruling Communist Party has traditionally regarded the state media, the only ones published or broadcast here since soon after President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, as guardians of ethically pure ``revolutionary journalism.''
The party scorns what it sees as Washington's desire to restore ``the capitalist press'' to the island, and generally views independent journalists as political dissidents.
Rivero said three independent journalists were currently being held in Cuban jails.
In May, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists named Castro as one of the world's 10 ``Enemies of the Press'' despite his ``implicit promises'' to Pope John Paul II during the pontiff's January visit that there would be more freedom of expression in Cuba.
Cuba's independent reporters do not publish or broadcast their work locally, but normally send material abroad for use in foreign publications or on the Internet.
20:08 06-26-98
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