The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the "violent detention" of Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra, director of the news agency Hablemos Press.
Plain-clothes security agents intercepted the journalist driving to the Czech Embassy to access the Internet and detained him for several hours on Wednesday, Nov. 28, reported EFE. He was released later that day.
The independent news agency Hablemos Press recently released a statement accusing Cuban authorities of other arbitrary arrests and harassment against its reporters during the month of November. Another of its reporters remains in jail and could be sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly insulting President Raúl Castro.
Hablemos Press documents and reports on human rights violations in Cuba through videos and Twitter.
Since Sept. 23, the state telephone company has suspended the director's cell phone service to impede his ability to post reports to Twitter via text message. Authorities reestablished the journalist's phone service upon his release, according to Yoani Sánchez, IAPA's delegate in Cuba.
The blogger Yoani Sánchez, vice-president for IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press in Cuba, reported on her Twitter account that brief, intimidating detentions of journalists are on the rise in Cuba.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
