Last Updated: October 21, 1997
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MIAMI — The leaders of the American Society of Newspaper Editors leave
October 21 for a fact-finding trip to Cuba where they will meet with government
officials and private individuals. The trip is a highlight of President
Edward Seaton’s year of focusing on international coverage.
“It’s important that editors who run news about the world know about
that world,” said Seaton, editor-in-chief of The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury.
“We want to help editors understand more about nations that are making
news.”
This isn’t the first time that ASNE’s member editors have visited foreign
— even controversial — locations. Editors visited Mexico this year and
Northern Ireland in 1997. In the past, there have been visits to Asia,
Southern Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, China and the former U.S.S.R.
The goal of all the trips is to educate editors so they can make their
news columns more authentic, credible and useful to readers. Editors —
or their newspapers — pay the costs of the journey.
Although most U.S. citizens are prohibited from travel to Cuba, regularly
employed journalists can travel there under U.S. law and others under special
licenses. The Cuba trip will immediately follow the Society’s fall
board meeting in Miami. Click here to see a list of trip participants.
Among others, the group plans to meet with: Ricardo Alarcon, head of
the National Assembly; Carlos Lage, Vice President of the Councils of Ministers
and State; Roberto Robaina, Minister of Foreign Affairs. The ASNE contingent
has requested meetings with President Fidel Castro Ruz and Raul Castro
Ruz, deputy president.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors, with 860 members, is an organization
of the main editors of daily newspapers in the Americas. Founded in 1922,
ASNE focuses on the professional development of its members and journalism-related
issues, including First Amendment, newsroom staff diversity, editorial
innovation, and the newspaper’s role in providing information necessary
to the informed practice of citizenry.
