Three journalists are among the first political prisoners to be released in Cuba, the Committee to Protect Journalists is reporting.
The Cuban government has said it will release 52 political prisoners, including opposition activists and journalists, The New York Times reported.
Dissident Cuban journalist Guillermo Fariñas, on a hunger strike for more than four months to demand the release of political prisoners on the island, said he is aware his death is approaching and that brothers Fidel y Raúl Castro are responsible for his future death, reported the news agencies EFE and AFP.
The official voice of Cuba's Communist party, the newspaper Granma, reported that Guillermo Fariñas is at risk of dying after nearly 130 days of a hunger strike. In an extensive interview, the chief of the intensive care unit of the hospital where Fariñas is staying said doctors have done just about all they can to save his life.
Dissident Cuban journalist Guillermo Coco Fariñas, on a hunger strike for four months, is in critical condition and risks death, reported the website Cubanet.
Amnesty International reported that Cuba's repressive legal system has resulted in an atmosphere of fear for journalists, dissidents and activists, "putting them at risk of arbitrary arrest and harassment."
At a time when independent journalists continue to fear state police harassment for publishing criticisms of the government, and others remain in prison for their work, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, Granma, appears to be increasingly willing to air critical ideas. In recent months, the paper – Cuba’s largest – has published letters to the editor critical of the country’s economic policies, Juan Tamayo writes for The Miami Herald.
Independent journalist Guillermo (Coco) Fariñas has refused food for nearly three months to protest treatment of political prisoners on the island. His story has been widely reported by English- and Spanish-language media. But on Saturday, he was the source of stories in foreign media that said the Havana regime had agreed to transfer ill prisoners to hospitals and to move prisoners being held far from their hometowns.
An appeals court ruled that blogger Dania García would have to pay a $14 fine instead of serving a 20 month prison term for a family dispute, The Associated Press reports.
The U.S. government’s Radio and TV Martí broadcasts to Cuba reach fewer than 2 percent of people on the island, suffer from poor editorial standards, and have failed to make a meaningful influence on Cuban society, a U.S. Senate Committee reports (PDF) this week. See reports by AFP, the Miami Herald, Washington Post and Inter Press Service.
State security agents arrested independent journalist Yosvani Anzardo Hernández for several hours in San Germán, Holguín, and threatened to jail him for his political activism, Cubanet and Radio Martí report.
State security agents arrested independent journalist Yosvani Anzardo Hernández for several hours in San Germán, Holguín, and threatened to jail him for his political activism, Cubanet and Radio Martí report.