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"Welcome to Cuba where
journalists have no rights"
Press freedom protest
during Cuban foreign minister's visit to
UNESCO in Paris
Reporters
Without Borders, France, 10 October
2005.
Wearing prisoner uniforms in solidarity
with the 23 journalists in Cuban jails,
a score of Reporters Without Borders activists
staged a loud protest outside UNESCO headquarters
in Paris today as Cuban foreign minister
Felipe Pérez Roque was due to address
a meeting inside.
A trusted aide of President Fidel Castro,
Pérez Roque has said in the past
of the journalists arrested during the Black
Spring of 2003 : "They contribute to
the US blockade against Cuba, manufacture
false reports and conspire to destabilise
the country. They endanger of the rights
of all Cubans."
Reporters Without Borders said : "Twenty-one
journalists who got jail sentences ranging
from 14 to 27 years have been languishing
in filthy cells for more than two years,
sleeping in disgusting sheets (if they are
lucky enough to have any), wearing uniforms
that are passed from prisoner to prisoner
without ever being washed, and eating foul-tasting
gruels rarely fit for consumption."
The press freedom organisation added :
"Most of them have contracted chronic
ailments in prison and are in a very worrying
physical condition. As if that were not
enough, they are routinely humiliated by
guards or shut in cells with common criminals.
This is the situation we wanted to highlight
as a Cuban minister comes to Paris to talk
about culture and education."
Reporters Without Borders said two more
journalists were imprisoned in Cuba in July
and August, one of whom, Oscar Mario González,
is still awaiting trial and faces a possible
20-year prison sentence.
In today's protest, the Reporters Without
Borders activists wore handcuffs, gags and
numbered uniforms. They beat on billycans,
displayed a banner with the words, "Welcome
to Cuba, where journalists have no rights"
and played a soundtrack of Cuban dance music
that was suddenly interrupted by the noise
of cell doors clanging shut, chains rattling
and inmates crying out.
Copyright : Eric Damidot
Reporters Without Borders
set up a sponsorship system 16 years ago
in which international news media are urged
to adopt an imprisoned journalist. More
than 200 news organisations around the world
are currently supporting jailed colleagues
by regularly asking the appropriate authorities
to release them and by publicising their
cases so they are not forgotten.
Ricardo González is being supported
in this way by Alternatives Internationales,
Amiens Métropole (JDA), the Madrid
Press Association, Cambio 16, Corriere,
Canadese, El Mundo, El Pais, El Punto, France
Soir, Grands Reportages, www.cubantrip.com,
Ici, L'Express, La Tribune, La Vanguardia,
Le Figaro, Le Ligueur, Le Maine Libre, Le
Nouvel Observateur, Le Nouvelliste, Le Télégramme
de Brest et de l'Ouest, Okapi, Ouest France,
PACA Informations économiques, the
Prix Bayeux des correspondants de guerre,
Radio Classique, Radio Côte d'Amour,
Radio Nostalgie (Belgique), RFI, Servimedia,
StarPhoenix, The Concordian, The Telegram
and Tiempo.
Fabio Prieto Llorente is supported by Bernard
Lehideux (a Member of the European Parliament),
Coup d'oeil vers l'avenir, the Festival
International du Scoop et du Journalisme,
Libération, the Arlanc city hall
and Métro Belgique.
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez is
supported by the Nancy city hall.
Reporters Without Borders
defends imprisoned journalists and press
freedom throughout the world, as well as
the right to inform the public and to be
informed, in accordance with Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Reporters Without Borders has nine national
sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan,
Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New
York, Tokyo and Washington and more than
a hundred correspondents worldwide.
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