CPJ urges Castro to end persecution of independent press
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about your government’s practice of imprisoning journalists in reprisal for their work. Twenty-four Cuban reporters, writers, and editors were behind bars on December 1, 2005, making your country the world’s second-leading jailer of journalists, behind only China, CPJ found in an analysis released today. Two Cuban journalists were imprisoned during the year, joining 22 others who have been jailed since a massive March 2003 crackdown on the independent press.
CPJ alarmed by worsening health of journalist held without charge
New York, December 7, 2005 — A Cuban journalist detained without charge for nearly five months has lost 30 pounds (13.5 kilograms) in prison and is suffering from serious health problems his wife told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Oscar Mario González, a journalist with the independent news agency, Grupo de Trabajo Decoro, was arrested…
Cuban government detains two foreign journalists
New York, December 2, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Thursday’s detention of two foreign journalists who were reportedly interviewing opposition activists in Cuba’s central Sancti Spíritus province. The government was expected to expel the two journalists. Police detained Polish journalist Anna Bikont, who works for the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, and Swiss journalist…
CPJ calls for release of 24 others still unjustly imprisoned
New York, December 1, 2005—Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, an imprisoned Cuban journalist who wounded himself and waged repeated hunger strikes to call attention to his plight, was released on medical parole today, more than two and half years after he was jailed in the government’s massive March 2003 crackdown on the independent press.
Cubans: Direct Line to Readers
Since 1995, when the first independent news agencies emerged in Cuba, dozens of journalists have fled the country to escape harassment, threats, detention, or jail. Many have settled in the United States or Spain, where some continue to work as journalists. Manuel Vázquez Portal, who won CPJ’s 2003 International Press Freedom Award, settled in Miami…
CPJ concerned about health of jailed journalist on hunger strike
Victor Rolando Arroyo New York, September 23, 2005—The Committee to P rotect Journalists is concerned about the health of jailed independent journalist Víctor Rolando Arroyo who went on hunger strike two weeks ago and is now in the prison hospital, his sister Blanca Arroyo told CPJ. Arroyo refused food to protest mistreatment at the Guantánamo…
Second independent journalist jailed in less than a month
New York, August 25, 2005 – Cuba has jailed a second independent journalist who covered an unprecedented opposition meeting in May. Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, was arrested on August 6, tried three days later and handed a one-year jail term without the knowledge of his family who found out about his detention only after…
Second independent journalist jailed in less than a month
New York, August 25, 2005 – Cuba has jailed a second independent journalist who covered an unprecedented opposition meeting in May. Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández, was arrested on August 6, tried three days later and handed a one-year jail term without the knowledge of his family who found out about his detention only after…