(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Cuba passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below: INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE WORLD […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a resolution on Cuba passed by members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004. The organisations that have signed on to the resolution are listed below:
INTER AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTING
INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE
WORLD ASSOCIATION OF NEWSPAPERS
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM COMMITTEE
JAILED JOURNALISTS IN CUBA
The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, meeting in Belgrade for World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2004, issued the following resolution on Cuba:
WHEREAS
there has been no freedom of expression in Cuba for 44 years,
WHEREAS
the Cuban government is holding 32 independent journalists in poor conditions, with terrible food and insufficient medical care, subjected to physical and psychological mistreatment,
WHEREAS
Raúl Rivero, a member of the IAPA Board of Directors and regional vice chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, is among those serving long sentences, to whom UNESCO awarded the World Press Freedom Prize and his wife was prevented from leaving the country to represent him at the award ceremony in Belgrade,
WHEREAS
a dozen of the imprisoned journalists, most of them elderly, are seriously ill, and six of them are hospitalized with life-threatening conditions,
WHEREAS
journalists Carlos Alberto Domínguez, Léster Téllez Castro and Carlos Brizuela have been in custody for more than two years without going to trial in an obvious violation of their rights,
WHEREAS
the authorities are continuing a relentless policy of harassment, searches of homes, temporary detentions, fines and even violent attacks in the street against about 30 independent journalists who remain active in the country, defying police repression,
WHEREAS
the government, through a new resolution by the Computer and Communications Ministry (MIC), has put up a new barrier restricting Cubans’ already limited access to the Internet, preventing access to the Web through the state telephone system, which is the only one available on the island.
THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE RESOLVES
to demand the immediate release of the imprisoned journalists and the end of harassment of independent professionals who try to disseminate their ideas, opinions and news inside and outside the country,
to express its deep appreciation for the award of the 2004 World Press Freedom Prize by UNESCO to Raúl Rivero, and to condemn the prevention of his wife from leaving the country to receive the award on his behalf,
to request the intervention of democratic governments, humanitarian, professional and religious institutions and the international community to demand expedited release and adequate medical treatment for the sick and elderly journalists whose lives are at risk under poor conditions in the prisons,
to demand the suspension of government measures for state control on use of the Internet and an end to bans on Cuban citizens’ free access to information provided by the new communications technologies.
