Yahoo! August 27, 2001.
PARIS (AP) - An international media advocacy group said Friday it has
protested to Cuba about the police questioning of three reporters who work
outside the government media.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said it sent a letter to Cuban
Interior Minister Gen. Abelardo Colome Ibarra, asking him to "put an end to
the state's pressure on journalists.''
Jesus Joel Diaz Hernandez and Carlos Brizuela Yera, who work for non-state
news agencies, were questioned for eight hours on Wednesday, the group's
director Robert Menard said in a statement.
Also Wednesday, police took Dorka de Cespedes of the non-state Havana Press
in for questioning ahead of an unauthorized demonstration she planned to cover,
the group said. She was threatened with imprisonment but released.
The majority of the independent journalists work with organizations in the
United States. Many of them are run by groups opposed to Cuban President Fidel
Castro (news - web sites). The Cuban government calls the journalists who do not
work for state-run or state-sponsored organizations "counterrevolutionaries.''
Menard said that more than 15 non-government Cuban reporters had been taken
in for questioning since the beginning of the year, including the three this
week.
About 100 independent Cuban journalists face constant harassment by
authorities, the organization said. | 
