In Cuba newsmen were getting a warm welcome--provided they did not go near the revolution. In Havana beaming President Fulgencio Batista entertained 26 newsman at his 100-acre estate, served them daiquiris and charm, fondled kittens for photographers. But at the very moment Batista was being nice to some newsmen in Havana, his soldiers were throwing others into jail in strife-torn Santiago de Cuba. There, soon after arrival, the Chicago Sun-Times's Ray Brennan, NEA's Ward Cannel and Las Vegas TV Reporter Alan Jarlson were herded into a filthy jail and held incommunicado for nearly ten hours. Miami TV Cameraman Ben Silver was imprisoned for four days. Three other newsmen, including the New York Times's Homer Bigart, were picked up but quickly released.

Even in Havana, correspondents were harassed by cable censorship and capricious if ineffectual monitoring of outgoing phone calls. Veteran Newsman Brennan ( TIME, Sept 22, 1952 ) managed to telephone out the story of his jailing only by sprinkling his copy with superlatives ("They served us a wonderful breakfast. The bread was a delicious grey color"). There was one bloodstained breach in Batista's hospitality. Reporter Neal Wilkinson was sipping coffee across from the presidential palace when police caught up with a group of teen-age rebels who stopped a few feet from Wilkinson. One cop turned on Wilkinson and, disregarding his cries of "Americano," clubbed him about the face and body, pursuing him until he reached the sanctuary of his hotel.

Trying to repair the breach, Prime Minister Gonzalo Guell promised to help newsmen get their stories out--provided they do not "misinterpret" events.