Cuba

According to the Inter American Press Association, “the initiation of new relations cannot remain in just a political agreement on the exchange of spies, but involve all human rights, which makes necessary the release of journalists and everyone jailed for their way of thinking.”

The IACHR submitted its request on 26 September after being contacted by Elisa Tabakman, who edits Angel Santiesteban-Prats’ website and who had provided the IACHR with details of the psychological torture to which he has been subjected.

The National Revolutionary Police have arrested and threatened independent journalist Bernardo Arévalo for the second time in a less than month, this time as he was travelling to the northern province of Matanzas.

Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, an independent journalist based in Cienfuegos, said police pressured him to leave Cuba when they arrested him on 6 September because of his reporting for the opposition newspaper El Cubano Libre, de Hoy.

When detained Cuban writer and blogger Angel Santiesteban-Prats disappeared from San Miguel del Padrón prison on 21 July, the authorities said he had escaped but his daughter managed to talk briefly with him in a police station ten days later. His present whereabouts are unknown.

“Although the Castro regime gives the appearance of opening up politically, the methods used by the authorities to silence dissident journalists are clearly becoming more and more brutal,” says Reporters Without Borders.

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez has launched an independent newspaper called 14ymedio with her partner, the journalist Reinaldo Escobar.

Reporters Without Borders condemns independent journalist Juliet Michelena Díaz’s detention since 7 April 2014, three days after she wrote a by-lined report for the Miami-based independent news platform Cubanet about a case of ordinary police violence she had witnessed in Havana.

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for the release of Angel Santiesteban-Prats, a writer who completes a year in detention today (28 February 2014) and who began a blog in 2008 called Los hijos que nadie quiso that was openly critical of the government.

José Peralta, the 2013-2014 Scotiabank / CJFE Journalism Fellow, interviews Cubans who, although happy with ongoing economic changes, acknowledge that freedom of expression is still an issue in Cuba, where the Castro regime has been in power since 1959.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Cuban authorities to quickly release Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, a writer and blogger who has been held for the past two months and who has been on hunger strike since his transfer to a different prison at the start of April. He is now in an isolation cell.

Calixto Ramón Martínez Ariaswas arrested for revealing the existence of dengue and cholera epidemics, which the government confirmed a few days later. He had been facing a possible three-year sentence on a charge of insulting the president although the charge was never officially confirmed and he was never tried.

The International Press Institute reiterates its demand that Cuban authorities immediately release the independent journalist Calixto Martínez Arias, who was imprisoned last September for allegedly insulting former president Fidel Castro and his brother, current president Raúl Castro, under the country’s criminal-defamation laws.

The International Press Institute reiterates its demand that Cuban authorities immediately release the independent journalist Calixto Martínez Arias, who was imprisoned last September for allegedly insulting former president Fidel Castro and his brother, current president Raúl Castro, under the country’s criminal-defamation laws.

Digital media by no means supplant action in the physical world, but when used wisely by courageous citizen journalists such as Yoani Sánchez, they can serve as a vital tool in the push to uphold universal human rights.

Cuban dissident and blogger Yoani Sánchez is having a hard time on her visit to Brazil, facing demonstrations by pro-Castro protesters.