(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 30 October 2003 IAPA press release: Miami (30 October 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns yesterday’s detention in Havana of journalist Claudia Márquez Linares, vice-president of De Cuba magazine, and fears that this action signals the beginning of a new wave of repression against the independent […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 30 October 2003 IAPA press release:
Miami (30 October 2003) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemns yesterday’s detention in Havana of journalist Claudia Márquez Linares, vice-president of De Cuba magazine, and fears that this action signals the beginning of a new wave of repression against the independent press.
Márquez Linares was held for two hours and threatened by state security personnel, who warned that if she continued to publish De Cuba her fate could be the same as that of her husband, dissident Osvaldo Alfonso, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in April. This would effectively leave her six-year-old son without parents.
Rafael Molina, president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said that “evidently the Cuban government is not paying attention to the international reaction against the jailing of dissidents and independent journalists who have tried to exercise their right to express themselves and provide information without being censored.”
The 26-year-old Márquez Linares recently published the third issue of the bimonthly De Cuba. The issue’s 62 pages were dedicated to the dissidents imprisoned during the repressive actions that took place in March. De Cuba’s director, Ricardo González Alfonso, adviser Raúl Rivero and the magazine’s photography department head, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, are among those who were imprisoned.
Law 88, which has been in force since 1999, considers the dissemination of information that does not correspond to government standards to be a crime punishable by imprisonment.
In statements to the press, Márquez Linares said, “This demonstrates the repressive and threatening stance of the Cuban government.” She further stated she was detained after publishing the issue about the prisons and that she is being threatened with 20 years in prison.
After expressing regret that publishing a magazine continues to lead to repressive actions against independent journalists, Molina, who is the director of the Dominican Republic-based magazine Ahora, blamed the government “for the continual harassment campaign against voices of opposition, which confirms the lack of fundamental liberties in the country.”
De Cuba began circulation in December 2002. The magazine is backed by the Manuel Márquez Sterling Society. This association, which is dedicated to providing journalistic training to independent journalists, is not recognized by the Cuban authorities.
