Instituto de Información y Comunicación Social en Cuba (ICS)

The Instituto de Información y Comunicación Social (ICS) is the central government body responsible for directing and supervising Cuba’s social-communication policy. It was created by Decree-Law 41, dated 20 July 2021, which entered into force when it was published in the Official Gazette on 24 August 2021. The decree dissolved the former Instituto Cubano de Radio y Televisión (ICRT) and established ICS as an organismo de la Administración Central del Estado, a body of the Central State Administration. Its legally defined mission is to direct and control the implementation of the social-communication policy of the state and government.

ICS directly incorporates the national Radio Cubana and Televisión Cubana structures. Its remit is nevertheless broader than broadcasting. Law 162/2023 on Social Communication gives it regulatory, coordinating and supervisory authority across Cuba’s social-communication system, encompassing organisational, media and community communication in physical and digital spaces. The law was approved in 2023, published in June 2024 and entered into force 120 days after publication.

Media assets

Television: Televisión Cubana (Cubavisión, Tele Rebelde, Canal Caribe, Canal Habana, Cubavisión Internacional, Canal Clave, Canal Educativo, Canal Educativo 2, Multivisión). The national system also encompasses provincial telecentres and local television services. The nine services listed are the principal channels included in State Media Monitor’s mapping; no sufficiently authoritative and current total for all provincial and local television operations was identified.

Radio: Radio Cubana (Radio Rebelde, Radio Progreso, Radio Taíno, Radio Reloj, CMBF Radio Musical Nacional, Radio Enciclopedia, Radio Habana Cuba). Radio Habana Cuba is directed principally at international audiences. Radio Cubana’s official portal listed 100 live radio stations as of July 2026, encompassing national, provincial and municipal services. This figure is best understood as the official network and online-service count rather than a separate count of licensed terrestrial frequencies.

Ownership and governance

Decree-Law 41/2021 established ICS as a body of the Central State Administration and assigned it responsibility for directing and controlling the implementation of the state and government’s social-communication policy. It also transferred to the new institute the functions, assets and institutional responsibilities of the former ICRT.

The current president is Alfonso Noya Martínez, who previously headed the ICRT and is listed among the members of the Council of Ministers. He is supported by Onelio Castillo Corderí as First Vice-President and by Belkys Pérez Cruz and Xenia López González as vice-presidents. The organisation’s current senior structure also identifies Yuzaima Cardona Villena as director general of Radio Cubana and José Carlos Zaragoza Suárez as director general of Televisión Cubana.

Law 162/2023 significantly formalised ICS’s authority. It gives the institute responsibility for directing and controlling the strategic and integrated management of the social-communication system, maintaining national registers of serial publications and websites, regulating advertising and sponsorship, and supervising compliance with the law. Registration may be suspended or cancelled when the institute determines that legal requirements have been breached.

The institute also exercises functional and methodological authority over territorial communication structures. Provincial general directorates of information and social communication are administratively subordinate to provincial governors, while municipal departments or specialists report to municipal intendants. ICS establishes policy, methodology and professional guidance rather than directly administering every territorial office. By late 2024, directors had been appointed in all provinces, while approximately 89 per cent of municipalities had designated communication heads or specialists.

Constitutional and legal framework

Article 55 of the Cuban Constitution recognises freedom of the press in accordance with the law and the purposes of socialist society. It provides that the country’s fundamental social-communication media, in any format, are socialist property of the whole people or belong to political, social and mass organisations. Such media may not be subject to other forms of ownership, and the state establishes the principles governing their organisation and operation.

The constitutional formula should not be reduced to the statement that every Cuban media outlet is directly owned by the state. Some officially authorised media belong institutionally to the Communist Party or to recognised political, social and mass organisations. The material point for classification is that independent private ownership of fundamental media is excluded and that the permitted media system remains embedded within the structures of the socialist state.

Law 162/2023 repeats this ownership framework. It defines fundamental media as including news agencies, radio and television services, print publications and digital media, and provides that they may be socialist property of the whole people or belong to recognised political, mass and social organisations. Other ownership forms are not permitted.

Source of funding and budget

As an institution of the Central State Administration, ICS is administered and financed within the state system. No sufficiently detailed and current standalone budget for the institute was identified in the public documents reviewed.

Law 162 provides that Cuba’s fundamental media are financed essentially through the state budget or through the budgets of the political, mass or social organisations to which they belong. The law also permits supplementary revenue from commercial services, advertising, sponsorship, international cooperation and other authorised activities.

The existence of such revenue does not give the media financial or institutional independence. Their permitted ownership, senior appointments, strategic direction and regulatory environment remain determined within the state and party system. It is therefore more accurate to describe them as structurally dependent on public or authorised institutional funding than to claim that they have no commercial revenue at all.

Editorial independence

Neither the Constitution, Decree-Law 41 nor Law 162 establishes an arm’s-length governance structure protecting ICS-managed broadcasting from the state and government. On the contrary, the institute’s express legal mission is to direct and control the implementation of state communication policy, while the constitutional and legislative framework restricts media ownership and places the organisation of the media system under state authority.

Law 162 requires media organisations to establish editorial policies, internal editorial councils and self-regulatory procedures, and provides for participation by media professionals in developing editorial policies. These internal mechanisms do not amount to statutory institutional independence: they operate within a system whose ownership, permissible functions, strategic priorities and regulatory supervision are determined by state institutions and authorised political or social organisations.

ICS also controls the registration of serial publications and websites and supervises compliance with the Social Communication Law. These powers give the same government body that directs communication policy significant authority over the lawful operation of the media system. No independent governing board, protected appointment procedure or external public-service-media authority has been identified that could shield Radio Cubana or Televisión Cubana from government direction.

AI and digital policy

Cuba approved a national Strategy for the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence in 2024. Government programmes subsequently called for its implementation across public administration, research, education, economic development and social communication.

ICS has also adopted a digital-transformation strategy for the communication system and has reported initial applications of artificial intelligence in radio and television production. Cooperation between ICS and the Ministry of Communications has included work on implementing the national AI strategy and developing more specific approaches for the media and communication sector.

No publicly available ICS-wide editorial code was identified as of July 2026 that establishes binding requirements for matters such as the disclosure of AI-generated content, human verification, synthetic media, source transparency or accountability for automated editorial decisions. The relevant public initiatives are therefore better described as strategic and operational AI development rather than as an independent editorial-governance framework.

Classification rationale

ICS is classified State-Controlled because it is itself a government body within Cuba’s Central State Administration. Its legally defined purpose is to direct and control the implementation of state and government communication policy. Its president serves in the Council of Ministers, while its organisational structure directly incorporates the general directorates responsible for Radio Cubana and Televisión Cubana.

Its authority extends beyond operating the state broadcasting system. Law 162 gives ICS regulatory and supervisory powers across organisational, media and community communication, including the registration of publications and websites, oversight of advertising and sponsorship, and enforcement of the social-communication framework.

The broader constitutional and statutory framework permits fundamental media to be owned only as socialist property of the whole people or by recognised political, social and mass organisations. Although the law provides for internal editorial policies and some supplementary commercial revenue, it contains no protected governance structure or editorial firewall capable of separating ICS-managed media from the executive and state communication system.

July 2026