200 Chapter 8
media is, using a strict definition, the only fully autonomous media
sector in Cuba, other than the independent journalists’ movement.
With respect to the religious media in Cuba, it should be noted that
virtually all suffer from a scarcity of resources. Most of the material
resources come from abroad and are subject to government regula-
tion and control, thereby encouraging caution on the part of churches
and other religious organizations. They, as well as foreign religious
donors, have been careful not to become identified with some of the
dissident or oppositional sectors of civil society. Even so, the
increased role of religions in responding to the socioeconomic needs
of the population has expanded the credibility and influence of most
religions within civil society and hence their publications. Overall,
while religions and the religious media are emerging as critical ele-
ments of a revitalizing civil society, there is an understandable desire
on their part not to precipitate serious conflicts with the government.
While religious leaders, by and large, may have become more publicly
critical of the government, this has not translated into substantial
efforts on their part to directly mobilize civil society.
In order for religions and the religious media to become more
influential a number of prerequisites need to be fulfilled. One such
precondition is that there exists sufficient space to allow for general-
ized pressures for a greater role for civil society to be effectively
exerted, together with an increasing capacity on the part of civil soci-
ety to occupy it. There has been some progress in this realm. The gov-
ernment since the late 1970s, for example, has increasingly allowed
some autonomous civic, cultural, and religious actors to move away
from the margins of society. This is partially a result of the govern-
ment's need for assistance in meeting the basic needs of the popula-
tion, as well as its efforts to compensate for the erosion of support
from some other sectors. The government’s inclination to accord
more public space for religious actors was confirmed in the early
1990s by the elimination of the prohibition on believers becoming
members of the Communist Party, which had blocked religious activ-
ists from holding influential positions in government or in education.