MIAMI — On December 3, 1941, it began in Havana, Cubathe First National Congress of Journalistsconvened by the Board of Directors of the Havana Reporters Associationreports CubaNet.
The event, which held the days December 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the capital, its objective was to group journalists within a collegiate organization in defense of their professional interests, as well as the creation of a School of Journalism for the technical preparation of future print intellectuals.
The opening words of the Congress were given by the then editor of the newspaper El Mundo, José Manuel Valdés Rodríguez. In his speech, the journalist acknowledged that journalists had lived apart for a long time.
According to the book Memories: National Congress of Journalists (1941), the event’s discussion agenda aspired to solve three types of problems: journalism ethics, journalism technique, and journalism legislation. Which constituted the central themes of the plenary sessions, and where each journalist tried to provide a solution through a paper presented to the rest of the congressmen.
In Congress it was agreed to endow the practice of the profession on the Island with a Code of Professional Ethics and to establish a Tribunal of Honor to settle personal issues among reporters. It was also decided to support women so that they demonstrate the conditions for active journalism, providing facilities for their professional development and that their work be paid in the same way as men.
Figures like Lisandro Otero, then president of the Havana Reporters Association, highlighted the importance of this event, considering that it marked a before and after in the way Cuban journalists were organized.
In this sense, Otero expressed: “…in the future it will be necessary to begin to count a new life from the date on which that Congress took effect, and consider as old time, everything and everything that happened before its celebration in the Capital of the Republic”.