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Concern
about Reporters Without Borders correspondent
on hunger strike in prison
Reporters
Without Borders,
19 December 2003.
Reporters Without Borders today voiced
concern about its correspondent in Cuba,
Ricardo González Alfonso, who began
a hunger strike in prison on 8 December
to press his demand not to be held in a
cell with non-political detainees.
"We hold the Cuban government responsible
for our correspondent's health," the
organisation said, noting that several journalists
have recently been transferred to cells
with non-political detainees where they
risk being the victims of violence from
their cell mates, sometimes instigated by
the authorities.
With 29 journalists detained, Cuba is the
world's biggest prison for the press, ahead
of Burma with 16 and Eritrea with 14. González
is serving a 20-year sentence handed down
on 7 April.
González's wife Alida Viso Bello
told Reporters Without Borders she found
him a lot thinner when she visited him on
17 December in "Kilo 8" prison
in the central province de Camagüey,
located more than 500 km from his home in
Havana.
She said he did not want to continue sharing
a cell with non-political detainees or,
at least, to be put with detainees who were
less violent. Since 6 November, he has been
held in various cells in the prison's block
7 with non-political detainees, including
one convicted of murder. Cell mates have
twice stolen personal belongings from him.
A prison official who attended the meeting
between González and his wife said
he was moved to a poorly-lit cell on 14
December as a punishment for "lack
of discipline." The prison official
added that it was not up to him whether
González was transferred to another
cell.
González was the president of the
Manuel Márquez Sterling Association
of independent journalists and the editor
of De Cuba, the first independent magazine
published in Cuba since Fidel Castro came
to power. He was arrested on 18 March 2003
and convicted of "actions against the
independence and unity of the state."
He was detained in a crackdown in which
a total of 26 independent journalists and
some 50 other dissidents were rounded up.
The journalists were sentenced to prison
terms ranging from 14 to 27 years.
More
information on Ricardo González
More
information on the magazine De Cuba
More
information on the jailed cuban journalists
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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