(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: Message on World Press Freedom Day* by the President of the Inter American Press Association, Diana Daniels, Vice President of The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C. Today, World Press Freedom Day, the Inter American Press Association is focusing its attention on the deplorable plight of 25 […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
Message on World Press Freedom Day*
by the President of the Inter American Press Association, Diana Daniels, Vice President of The Washington Post Company, Washington, D.C.
Today, World Press Freedom Day, the Inter American Press Association is focusing its attention on the deplorable plight of 25 independent Cuban journalists imprisoned for committing crimes of conscience. On this day, we call upon the government of President Fidel Castro to release all 25 and immediately provide medical treatment to the18 who are suffering serious health problems.
Echoing the words of Kofi Annan, “we pay tribute to those who have fallen victim to the perils of their calling. We salute the courage and dedication of journalists struggling against risk and outright brutality to exercise their right to seek and tell the truth. And we remind Governments especially that the right to ‘seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media’ is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Censorship, the suppression of information, intimidation and interference are a denial of democracy, an obstacle to development, and a threat to the security of all.”
In particular, the condition of the independent Cuban journalists has deteriorated since they were jailed in March 2003 as part of an official crackdown on a group of 75 dissidents in what has become known as the Black Spring. The decline is due to physical mistreatment and punishment, poor food, lack of medical attention, restrictions on family visits, overcrowding in cells, and confinement among a highly dangerous criminal population.
The journalists, who are serving terms ranging from one to 27 years, are: Ricardo González Alfonso, Víctor Rolando Arroyo, Normando Hernández González, Julio César Gálvez, Adolfo Fernández Sainz, Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, Mijaíl Barzaga Lugo, Pedro Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco Ávila, Alejandro González Raga, Alfredo Pulido López, Fabio Prieto Llorente, Iván Hernández Carrillo, José Luis García Paneque, Juan Carlos Herrera, Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, José Ubaldo Izquierdo, Omar Ruiz Hernández, José Gabriel Ramón Castillo, Léster Luis González Pentón, Alfredo Felipe Fuentes, José Manuel Caraballo Bravo, Albert Santiago Du Bouchet and Oscar Mario González.
The majority are in extremely poor health and suffer a range of illnesses from psychiatric problems to intestinal blockages, asthma, tuberculosis, high blood pressure, arthritis, pulmonary emphysema and cataracts.
According to information received by the IAPA, the cases of most concern in terms of health are those of: García Paneque, hospitalized at Las Mangas prison in Bayazo; Hernández González, in Kilo 5 prison, Pinar del Río; Ramón Castillo, in Boniato prison in Santiago; Herrera Acosta, in Kilo 8 prison, Camagüey; González Raga, in Kilo 7 prison, Camagüey; Gálvez Rodríguez, in Combinado del Este prison, Havana; González Alfonso, in Combinado del Este prison, Havana; Argüelles Morán, in Nieves Morejón prison in Sancti Spiritus, and Du Bouchet, who remains interned in the inmates’ ward of Julio Trigo Hospital in Havana.
The IAPA herewith reaffirms its repudiation and denunciation of the state of freedom of expression in Cuba. In addition to those who are incarcerated, there are approximately 50 independent journalists on the island who are subjected to any number of restrictions and obstacles as they seek to exercise their profession. They are victims of constant campaigns to discredit their names, public attempts at censorship, brief arrests, government-organized demonstrations outside their homes and constant threats that they will be sent to jail if they continue reporting.
Another example is the plight of formerly jailed journalists Jorge Olivera Castillo, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Carmelo Díaz Ferneandez and Edel García, who have been granted visas to emigrate to the United States with their families as refugees, but who have yet to receive authorization from the Cuban government granting them permission to leave the country.
Added to the list in recent months is the case of journalist Lamasiel Gutiérrez Romero, 37. She was initially placed under seven months’ house arrest, but this was later revoked and she was sent to prison. Gutiérrez, released in March a few days before completing her sentence, complained that while in jail she was physically beaten.
Yet another case is that of Guillermo Fariñas, editor of the independent news agency Cubanacán Press, who, while not in jail, is staging a hunger strike to draw attention to his demand that the authorities permit access to the Internet – a means of communication and work in use by many people in the Americas but which in Cuba is regulated as a way of “protecting the country’s sovereignty.”
Those journalists freed since the Black Spring, most of them released for health reasons, are: Mario Enrique Mayo, of the independent news agency Félix Varela, sentenced to 20 years and freed on December 1, 2005; Jorge Olivera Castillo of Havana Press – 18 years, freed on December 6, 2004; Edel José García of Centro Norte del País – 15 years, freed on December 2, 2004; Raúl Rivero of CubaPress – 20 years, freed on November 30, 2004 and currently living in Spain; Oscar Espinosa Chepe, independent journalist -20 years, freed on November 29; Carmelo Díaz Fernández of Sindical Independiente de Cuba news agency – 15 years, freed on June 18, 2004; Carlos Alberto Domínguez of Cuba Verdad, freed on June 8, 2004; Manuel Vázquez Portal of Grupo Decoro – 18 years, freed on June 23, 2004 for health reasons and who today lives in Miami, and Carlos Brizuela Yera of the Independent Journalists Guild of Camagüey – three years, freed on March 2, 2005 on completing his sentence.
On this May 3, 2006, the IAPA would like to call upon all the government leaders in the Americas and around the world to intercede with the government of Cuba to release all of the independent journalists and those who are serving sentences for the crime of expressing their views. At the same time, we request that our member publications print the report on the state of press freedom in Cuba issued during the recent meeting in Quito as well as current news that tells what is happening there, so that citizens of the world are made aware of this outrage against Cuban journalists and can take steps to improve the state of freedom of the press and free speech in Cuba.
*World Press Freedom Day, celebrated each May 3, was declared in commemoration of the Declaration of Windhoek, a document setting out principles for the defense of freedom of the press drawn up in 1991 during a meeting of African journalists arranged by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
