The deadline for Cuba to release 52 political prisoners came and went Sunday night, Nov. 14, and as of Monday, 13 remained imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the Associated Press. The prisoners were arrested in March 2003 during a crackdown on dissidents and independent journalists known as "Black Spring."
In what the Miami Herald calls a “bold if not brazen move,” Cuban authorities have urged Spain’s government to give $155,000 to a program to counter “daily lies” in European media.
The European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Cuban Guillermo Fariñas, the journalist and dissident who spent more than four months on a hunger strike in an effort to pressure authorities to free political prisoners on the island, reported the Associated Press and BBC.
Alfredo Felipe Fuentes has arrived in Madrid with 10 family members following his release from prison Oct. 8, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports. Thirteen political prisoners including 17 journalists have been released from Cuban prisons since President Raúl Castro agreed in July to free 52 people.
A 16th Cuban journalist has been released from prison and gone into exile in Spain, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Carlos García-Pérez, member of the influential National Cuban American Foundation (FNCA), on Wednesday, Sept. 22, was confirmed as head of Radio and TV Martí, stations financed by the U.S. government to counteract the censorship in Cuba.
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).