Former Cuban president Fidel Castro is claiming U.S. journalist Jeffrey Goldberg misinterpreted his words, according to Xinhua, the official state Chinese English-language news agency.
The 15th journalist freed from prison in Cuba went into exile in Spain on Wednesday, Sept. 8., according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Cuban dissident and journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who in July ended his 135-day hunger strike, is recovering after emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder on Sept. 3, reported AFP and the Miami Herald.
In recognition of the challenges and restrictions she faces as a blogger in Cuba, and her defense of freedom of expression, the International Press Institute (IPI), based in Vienna, has named Yoani Sanchez of its 60 heroes of press freedom. (See also this story from EFE in Spanish).
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who officially reappeared in the public eye at the beginning of August after four years absent from the media because of an illness, has returned to the international spotlight.
Cuba first digital magazine debuted earlier this month, thanks to independent blogger Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, editor of "Voces", or Voices, reported the Miami Herald (in English), and El Nuevo Herald (in Spanish).
The release of various political prisoners does not mean Cuban authorities are tolerating any type of free expression on the island. Luis Felipe Rojas was arrested for publishing a "horror report" about abuses committed against dissidents in the eastern provinces of Cuba, reported Radio Martí and EcoDiario.
Ex-Cuban president, Fidel Castro, who reappeared before international press in a special Parliamentary session on Saturday, Aug. 7, gave his first interview in four years to a group of Venezuelan journalists, to whom he spoke about the possibility of nuclear war, U.S. President Barack Obama, and the Afghanistan War, reported the newspaper La Jornada and the Cuban News Agency.
The dissident journalist Guillermo Fariñas, who spent four months on hunger strike to demand the release of political prisoners, was released from the hospital and said he wants to continue writing articles, BBC reports.
Cuban authorities have blocked Yoani Sanchez, author of Generation Y, from traveling to Brazil to see a documentary on censorship in Cuba and Honduras, EFE reports.
Omar Rodríguez Saludes, Normando Hernández González and Mijail Bárzaga, who had been arrested in a crackdown on dissidents in March 2003, bring to nine the number of imprisoned journalists released by the Cuban government, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The first seven political prisoners released by the Cuban government landed in Madrid Tuesday, July 13. The prisoners are part of the 75 dissidents who were arrested during a crackdown in 2003, reported The Associated Press and ABC.