Seven journalists have been detained in Cuba following historic demonstrations throughout the island that started on July 11 amid food and medication shortages.
The global press freedom ranking by NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) confirmed a perceived trend in Latin America: a general worsening of conditions for the exercise of journalism on the continent. Of the 24 countries in the region analyzed, 19 lost points in the RSF survey.
Governments of several Latin American countries have struck back after the U.S. State Department released its report on human rights practices around the world, including comments regarding freedoms of expression and of the press. However, the annual reports, which are now in their 45th edition, are welcomed by press freedom and journalism groups in nations […]
In part, the skyrocketing of the cases can be attributed to the suppression of a demonstration on Jan. 27, but journalists and organizations in the country believe that attacks on the press are part of a broader escalation of aggressions
Cuban journalist Camila Acosta has had to move 10 times, between March and October, replace her cell phone three times and has been detained up to four times.
In recent months, headlines in media outlets from Cuba to Brazil highlight the murders of Black and Indigenous men and youth, placing them in the context of a notorious case that had global repercussions.
Between January and June of 2020, Voces del Sur, a Latin American initiative, registered 630 aggressions against the press in the region. These went on the rise or worsened after governments issued a health emergency.
Since the new coronavirus arrived in Cuba, independent journalism has had to face the increasingly common fines of Decree 370, which penalizes the opinions of Cubans posted on social networks and digital platforms.
On March 4, Cuban journalist Yariel Valdés González (29) was released after spending almost 12 months in different detention centers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
During 2019, there were more than three thousand arbitrary detentions in Cuba, several of these affecting dozens of independent journalists, activists and political opponents, according to a recent report by the Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH).