The last six months represented the worst semester for journalists in the Americas in the last five years, according to the Inter American Press Association, news agency EFE reported. The killing of journalists and the various government measures that restrict access to information were some of the reasons that IAPA cited during its General Assembly, which took place in Denver last weekend.
The Cuban government appointed new editors for its two main newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde, describing the move as part of a “renewal” process to improve the country’s official press, BBC News reported.
Update 10/18/2013: According to Reporters without Borders, all three journalists, along with Denis Noa Martinez and Pablo Morales Marchán (correspondents for Hablemos Press) who had been arrested Sunday, were released on Oct. 14.
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has published a new bilingual book compiling several reports from independent Cuban journalists on different social aspects of life in the island. "With Open Voices" gathers articles in Spanish and English on Cuba's isolated society, which continues to suffer from constant attacks against human rights.
The Cuban government rejected "guaranteeing freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, as well as the free activity of human rights defenders, independent journalists and those in opposition to the government," from among 292 formulated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council, according to a Notimex report published in the Diario of Cuba.
The Cuban government rejected "guaranteeing freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, as well as the free activity of human rights defenders, independent journalists and those in opposition to the government," from among 292 formulated recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council, according to a Notimex report published in the Diario of Cuba.
Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico and Dominican Republic were the countries in the Americas with the most alerts on violations or possible threats against freedom of expression in 2012, according to Amnesty International's 2013 annual report on the state of human rights around the world.
With six countries listed without a free press, including three countries with some of the highest levels of impunity in the world for press crimes, Latin American freedom of expression is at its lowest levels since 1989.
Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias was freed this Tuesday, reported the Institute for War & Peace Reporting. According to statements to Martí Noticias by Martínez, agents from the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) left him near the premises of Hablemos Press, the independent news agency he works for as a correspondent.
The International Press Institute, IPI, demanded the immediate release of Cuban journalist Calixto Martínez who was arrested for insulting authorities, according to a press released from the organization.