Cuba is listed among the 10 top countries with the highest levels of press censorship worldwide, according to a recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The report cites government control of the news media, Internet providers that block information, arbitrary detentions, and defamatory campaigns against independent journalists as the reasoning for the bad censorship record.
Brazilian journalists and international journalism organizations are dismayed that Brazil, along with Cuba, Venezuela, India and Pakistan, decided to block a U.N. plan that would have promoted journalists' safety.
Although about 800 journalists from 33 countries are covering Pope Benedict's visit to Cuba March 26- 28, the Cuban government denied visas for reporters and photographers from Florida and a journalist from the Spanish newspaper El País, according to reports by El Nuevo Herald and Diario de Cuba.
On Monday, March 12, the World Day Against Cybercensorship, Reporters Without Borders released its "Enemies of the Internet" list for 2012, placing Cuba on the list of countries that restrict Web freedom. In 2011, Cuba also appeared on the list.
A Honduran journalist was kept from traveling to Brazil on Feb. 3, when he was ordered to appear in court, reported the Committee for Freedom of Expression in Honduras.
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work defending freedom of expression, was denied permission to leave the island to visit Brazil, according to the website Terra. The blogger tweeted that this was the 19th time she has been denied the right to enter and leave the country.
Norwegian officials nominated Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez and Cuban opposition leader Oswaldo Payá for the Nobel Peace Prize, reported the Spanish newspaper ABC.
The Cuban Union of Journalists (UPEC in Spanish), a syndicate aligned with the Cuban government, demanded greater access to information from official sources, according to a statement by the union.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro ranted against the foreign press for reporting on the Jan. 19th death of political prisoner William Villar who had been on a hunger strike while in a prison in Santiago de Cuba, according to the newspaper Diario de Cuba.
A Spanish journalist jailed in Cuba for 17 months over allegations of sexually exploiting minors after reporting on child prostitution on the island for the television station Telecinco arrived back in Madrid on Jan. 17, reported the news agency EFE.
For the first time in 15 years, Cuba did not appear on the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) census of jailed journalists, that organization reported Thursday, Dec. 8.
Cuban human rights activist Laura Pollán died on Friday, Oct. 14 of respritory complications in a hospital in the Cuban capital, Havana, reported The New York Times. Pollán was the outspoken leader of the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), a group that demanded the release of political prisoners in Cuba.