Since Miguel Díaz-Canel became President of Cuba in April 2018, “repression against journalists is greater,” José Antonio Fornaris, president of Cuba’s Pro Press Freedom Association (APLP, for its initials in Spanish), told the Knight Center.
Cuban journalists confronting detentions, cyberattacks, blocking of their webpages and other aggressions now have a new manual to help address their physical, mental and digital needs.
Independent Cuban journalists are calling for support from international governments and organizations as they report a rise in detentions and attacks.
Cuban authorities provisionally shelved the case for the crime of "encroachment of legal capacity" against three journalists from the independent journalism site La Hora de Cuba, Henry Constantín Ferreiro, director of said media, reported on Facebook.
Cuban online magazine El Estornudo said the Cuban government has blocked access to the site, one of the main digital media outlets of an emerging independent journalism scene on the island.
Raúl Velázquez, Cuban executive director of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and of the Press (ICLEP, for its initials in Spanish), has been missing for six days.
From 2001 to 2017, fourteen media organizations were launched in Cuba that are already having impact on and off the island. Most of their teams have fewer than a dozen journalists, and many of them are volunteers. All these media sites have reporters working from Havana, but 50 percent have offices or newsrooms in foreign cities, such as Miami, Mexico City and Valencia, Spain.
Cuban digital media site 14ymedio is betting on a new membership program for readers to ensure its independence and increase engagement.
The Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Festival in Medellín, Colombia recognized four Latin American journalism reporting projects from Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Honduras on Sept. 29 as part of the 2017 Gabo Awards.
Independent Cuban journalist Sol García Basulto, editor of the magazine La Hora de Cuba, will file a formal complaint before the Provincial Prosecutor's Office of Camagüey against the precautionary measure of house arrest imposed on her July 24.
Journalists from Mexico and Cuba took home Ortega y Gasset journalism awards from Spanish newspaper El País announced on April 6. The 2017 edition was the 34th year of the award. The ceremony will be on May 11 in Madrid, and will crown the best reports in the Spanish language produced last year.
Cuban journalist Henry Constantín Ferreiro was declared free of charges after being accused of enemy propaganda and being held for almost two days.