Herald Staff Report. Published Wednesday, July 26, 2000, in the Miami Herald .
A New York-based journalism organization appealed Tuesday to President Fidel Castro of Cuba for the release of three independent Cuban journalists whom it says have been "unjustly jailed'' in violation of international law.
In a letter addressed to Castro, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom, identified the three imprisoned Cuban journalists as Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, Manuel Antonio González
Castellanos and Bernardo Arévalo Padrón.
It said that not only had the three been wrongfully imprisoned but are also being denied "medical care and other basic services.''
"We urge the Cuban government to bring all its laws governing freedom of expression into line with international standards for a free press,'' said the letter, signed by Ann K. Cooper, the CPJ's executive director.
She said Tuesday's letter was sent after CPJ received reports of their deteriorating health and "we felt it was very important not to forget about them. They have been imprisoned for awhile now and every day becomes more difficult for them.''
Diáz Hernández, according to the CPJ, was arrested by police Jan. 18, 1998, at his home in Morón, in Ciego de Avila province.
The executive director of the Cooperative of Independent Journalists of Ciego de Avila, a news service, he was found guilty by a municipal court of "dangerousness'' and sentenced to four years in prison.
After three hunger strikes to protest his imprisonment, the CPJ said, he is now being held in solitary confinement and is reportedly suffering from hepatitis.
González Castellanos, a correspondent for the independent news service CubaPress in Holguin province, was arrested by state security agents Oct. 1, 1998. Relatives said his arrest came after he made statements critical of Castro to the agents who had stopped and insulted him as he
returned home from visiting a friend.
Arévalo's arrest came Oct. 31, 1997, in Cienfuegos province and, again, for allegedly showing "disrespect'' for Castro and Carlos Lage -- another high-ranking Cuban government official -- in a story he had written about the privileges enjoyed by Cuban political leaders. Arévalo
received a six-year prison sentence.
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