Cuba

(IFLA/FAIFE/IFEX) – The following is a 9 August 2005 IFLA/FAIFE media release: IFLA/FAIFE responds to the Cuban Library Association’s concerns regarding the Pastors for Peace Convoy IFLA/FAIFE has consistently promoted freedom of access to information in Cuba, as in other countries, and has called on both the Cuban and US governments to remove any obstacles […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced alarm on learning that independent journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez, of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, is to be prosecuted under Law 88 protecting Cuba’s “national independence and economy.” González was arrested on 22 July 2005 in Havana. He faces up to 20 years in prison. “The announcement […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the arrest of independent journalist Oscar Mario González, of the Grupo de Trabajo Decoro news agency, who was detained at the same time as at least 15 other dissidents on the morning of 22 July 2005. Referring to the 21 other journalists who are already held in difficult conditions in […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced alarm over the fate of imprisoned journalist Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, who announced in a message to the organisation that he began a hunger strike on 14 July 2005 and will starve himself to death if he is not released soon. The editor of the Felix Varela news agency, a […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has deplored the use of violence by State Security and National Revolutionary Police on the Isle of Youth against Lamasiel Gutiérrez Romero of the Nueva Prensa Cubana news agency. On 14 July 2005, she was roughed up, held for seven hours and fined for resisting the authorities as she was about to […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is an 11 July 2005 CPJ press release: CUBA: Health of jailed journalists deteriorates, CPJ finds New York, July 11, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is very concerned about the deteriorating health of several imprisoned Cuban journalists who have been jailed for more than two years, and it renews […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned State Security agents’ harassment, intimidation tactics and orchestrated blackmail against independent journalists Osmel Sánchez Lopez, Ernesto Roque and Ana Rosa Veitía on 18 and 21 June 2005. “Once again Cuban journalists have been harassed because they want to do their jobs without interference,” RSF said. “Sudden summonses to the police […]

(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release: Vienna, 24 May 2005 IPI Condemns Detention and Expulsion of Foreign Journalists from Cuba According to information provided to IPI, three Polish journalists, Seweryn Blumsztajn, editor-in-chief of the Krakow edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, Jerzy Jurecki, publisher and journalist for Tygodnik Podhalanski, Wojciech Rogasin, a journalist for […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 24 March 2005 interrogation of Oscar Mario González, of the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro. González was interrogated in Havana by state security agents. They attempted to blackmail him into ceasing his work as a journalist. “A Cuban journalist is yet again being harassed by the political […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF voiced outrage today over a 17 March 2005 attempt to implicate journalist María Elena Alpízar Ariosa, of the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, in an imaginary crime in Placetas, Santa Clara province, central Cuba. “This scheme bears all the marksof the Cuban political police”, the organisation said. “When they are […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On the second anniversary of his arrest, RSF voiced alarm at the dramatic decline in the health of José Luis García Paneque, 39, director of the independent news agency Libertad. The journalist, who is serving a 24-year prison sentence, has lost 40 kg in the past two years. “García Paneque was unjustly imprisoned […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF is campaigning harder than ever for the 21 Cuban journalists who have been imprisoned since an 18 March 2003 crackdown in which 75 dissidents and journalists were arrested. Two years after the crackdown, which has become known as Cuba’s “Black Spring”, RSF is calling for the broadest possible solidarity with these prisoners […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF welcomes the 2 March 2005 release of journalist Carlos Brizuela Yera, of the Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey, an independent news agency in southwestern Cuba. The journalist was freed after completing a three-year prison sentence. “We welcome the news of [Brizuela’s] release and we hope he will be able to go […]

(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 22 February 2005 IAPA press release: Press Freedom Organizations Issue Resolutions on Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela Miami (February 22, 2005) – Institutions represented in the Global Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations approved resolutions on freedom of the press and expression in Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela during a meeting […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has said that it will hold the Cuban government responsible for imprisoned journalist Normando Hernández González’s health situation. The journalist is believed to have contracted tuberculosis in prison. “We call on the Cuban authorities to give him all the treatment he needs in order to recover quickly,” the organisation said, while adding […]

(Freedom House/IFEX) – The following is a 13 December 2004 Freedom House press release: EUROPEAN UNION SHOULD NOT REWARD CUBA NEW YORK, December 13, 2004 — When the European Union meets tomorrow to review its Cuba policy, it should not reward the Castro government for releasing political prisoners who were unjustly jailed, Freedom House said […]