Cuba is one of the top two nations in the world with the worst record of forcing journalists into exile, said the Committee to Protect Journalists in a new report.
Dissident Cuban journalist Albert Santiago Du Bouchet, who had been in jail since 2009 for defamation, was freed by the Cuban authorities and exiled to Spain, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports. The government had already released the journalists who were among the 52 dissidents jailed during the 2003 “Black Spring” crackdown.
Two of the four Cuban dissident journalists that remain in prison have begun a hunger strike, Reporters without Borders (RSF) reports.
Dissident Cuban journalist Julio César Gálvez, who was freed in July 2010 by Cuba after seven years in prison, complained that the living conditions of his exile in Spain are not what he was promised.
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."
The 15th journalist freed from prison in Cuba went into exile in Spain on Wednesday, Sept. 8., according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) has started a letter-writing campaign, asking the U.S. government to reverse its denial of a visa to Colombian television journalist Hollman Morris.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its 2010 survey of journalists living in exile.
While there are no accurate records on the number of migrant professionals, some reports and investigations by Venezuelan journalistic organizations estimate that between more than 400 and 1,300 reporters and communicators have emigrated from 2012 to 2018.
Carlos Fernando Chamorro, one of the most important journalists in Nicaragua, and founder and editor of the magazine Confidencial, decided to go into exile in Costa Rica as repression of the independent press grows in his country, as he announced on Jan. 20.