Cuba

Álvarez is a member of the local freedom of expression group the San Isidro Movement, and has recently reported on the government’s crackdown on protests organized by the movement.

Cuban authorities should stop harassing journalists and allow all citizens to access the internet without restriction.

Since November 16, approximately 14 activists, artists, and journalists have congregated at the MSI headquarters, under siege from state security forces. They are demanding the release of the musician Denis Solís González.

IFEX-ALC and the undersigned organizations demand that the Cuban government allows peaceful protests to take place, refrains from continuing to harass and interfere in the communication of those who participate in or report on them, and releases without any charge or punishment all those who have been arrested.

The undersigned organizations and media outlets support the petition and urge allies to demand that the Cuban government put an immediate stop to online surveillance of individuals who express their opinions and cease persecuting journalists and human rights activists.

Cuban authorities must drop the fine imposed on reporter Mónica Baró and refrain from using Decree 370 to harass independent journalists.

The undersigned civil society organizations express our profound concern and condemnation of the persecution against independent journalists and civil society actors in Cuba. This persecution has increased since the beginning of the year, particularly during the health crisis resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

Cuban authorities should stop barring journalist Luz Escobar from leaving her home, and cease harassing independent journalists in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

On 11 September journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces was detained in his home by three National Revolutionary Police agents (Policía Nacional Revolucionaria -PNR). They arrived at his home at 4:05pm to enforce the sentence imposed by Guantánamo city’s People’s Municipal Court, where he was accused of the crimes of resistance and disobedience.

On August 1st, journalist Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces was summoned to appear as a defendant before the People’s Municipal Court in the city of Guantánamo, Cuba. On 7th August, he was prosecuted and sentenced to one year’s deprivation of liberty, converted to correctional labor with internment.

“The ongoing pattern of detentions of independent journalists like Roberto Jesús Quiñones shows that recent political reforms have not improved the situation for the press,” said CPJ.

Journalists Osmel Ramírez, Niober García Fournier and Roberto de Jesús Quiñones continue to be strictly forbidden to leave the country or even, at times, to leave the province in which they live. They have been arrested or summoned on several occasions, have received threats against their families or have been threatened with imprisonment.

Tania Bruguera, an internationally celebrated artist whose work challenges the authorities in Cuba, has been branded a counter revolutionary, repeatedly arrested and harassed.

Art Under Pressure examines the government’s efforts to institutionalize and expand limits on creative expression by criminalizing unregistered artistic labor, authorizing censorship, and empowering a new class of state inspectors to regulate creative expression.

The energized press scene in Cuba contrasts with the island nation’s restrictive legal framework, which curbs freedom of speech under the guise of protecting the “independence or territorial integrity of the state.”

IAPA rejected a charge leveled at Cuban journalist Henry Constantín Ferreiro for the offense of “usurping legal authority” by acting as a journalist.