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.
Oscar Sánchez Madan was released from prison this week after serving a three-year term for “social dangerousness,” a vague charge he received after covering a local corruption scandal. He tells Radio Martí that he wants to keep writing about current affairs on the island, including Havana’s human rights violations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.
Members of the National Revolutionary Police arrested Juan Carlos Reyes Ocaña near his home in Holguín on charges of insult, disobedience, and illicit economic activity, EFE and Reporters without Borders (RSF) report. Reyes works for the Holguín Press news agency.
Don’t expect relations between Hugo Chávez and the U.S. media to improve in 2010. Venezuela’s government long ago declared war on “media terrorism,” its term for news organizations that criticize Chávez from within and outside the country. Chávez recently slammed the U.S. magazine Newsweek for its predictions that in 2010 Chávez faces another coup and that his mentor Fidel Castro will die this year in Cuba.
Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces was taken to prison on Sept. 11, just over a month after being convicted of the crimes of resistance and disobedience.
A group of 55 journalists, researchers, bloggers, activists, professors and others in Cuba have launched a petition demanding an end to repression against independent journalists and calling for guarantees for press freedom