An independent journalist and photographer in Cuba were reported missing after a surprise arrest in Havana, according to the website Martí Noticias.
Police apprehended Roberto de Jesús Guerra, director of the news agency Hablemos Press, and photographer Gerardo Youmel Ávila on Tuesday, Sept. 11, on their way to a free online course in the Czech embassy, Guerra's wife told the newspaper El Nuevo Herald.
Guerra, a dissident journalist, reported that a security agent called him on the phone, threatening him for reporting on Twitter about a blackout that left five million Cubans in the dark on the island. Guerra had received a citation from the State Security Office but did not appear because the law allows for a 72-hour period to report, according to Martí Noticias.
At the end of June 2012, the Inter American Press Association warned about the rise in detentions and threats against Cuban journalists, especially against members of the opposition.
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.
