|
Reporters Without Borders, June 25, 2003.
On 18 March, a hundred days
ago today, the Cuban government began an unprecedented round-up of dissidents.
A total of 75 were arrested and then tried and sentenced to prison terms
of up to 28 years. They included 26 independent journalists who joined the
four journalists already imprisoned in Cuba. This has made Cuba the world's
biggest prison for members of the press.
The sanctions against these
journalists who challenged the state's monopoly of news reporting did not
just consist of long jail terms. They have also been transferred to prisons
hundreds of kilometres from their homes, their right to family visits has
been restricted, and they have been subjected to especially poor conditions
of detention.
They
have a special page on the Reporters Without Borders website, www.rsf.org.
Nine of the 26 newly-detained
journalists were the editors of news agencies. Does this mean that the
independent press is now headless? No, but the pressure on those who were
not arrested is so strong that two recently-launched independent magazines
have not survived.
To mark the 100th day since
this round-up, Reporters Without Borders announces the launch of an awareness
campaign targeted at French tourists going to Cuba this summer.
To complete the picture of
press freedom violations in Cuba, Reporters Without Borders is releasing
the findings of investigations into the working conditions for foreign
correspondents in Havana (see
the report) and for the Catholic press (see
the report), the only privately-owned press tolerated by the government.
One hundred
days of solitude (chronology)
The government began its nationwide
round-up of dissidents on 18 March, 100 days ago today. Eleven independent
journalists were arrested that day. Fifteen others were detained in the
course of the next six days. In many cases, their homes were subjected to
searches lasting up to 10 hours. Police confiscated equipment (fax machines,
computers, typewriters, tape-recorders), files and notes.
Held in the different centres
of the state security department (the political police), including Villa
Marista, its headquarters in Havana, the journalists were accused of "endangering
the state's integrity and sovereignty" or its "independence."
The trials that took place
from 3 to 5 April had all the elements of those held under Stalin:
closed-door hearings, summary justice, denial of the right of defence,
testimony by undercover agents, depositions by neighbours, cases that had
been put together over a period of months, and cases in which the defendants
were accused solely of crimes of opinion. The verdicts against the 75
dissidents were issued on 7 April. The sentences passed on the 26 journalists
ranged from 14 to 27 years in prison.
But the punishment did not
stop there. They were transferred to prisons hundreds of kilometres from
their homes at the end of April. Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, for example,
was sent to Guantánamo prison, more than 1,000 km from his home in
Pinar del Río. Their families regard this as an additional sentence
especially in view of the transport problems in Cuba. What's more, visits
have been limited to once every three months instead of once every three
weeks as the regulations stipulate. Some wives were even told on arriving at
their husband's prison that their visit had been postponed at the last moment
or that their husband had been transferred.
Prison conditions have been
another form of punishment. Most are being held in solitary confinement. At
least six are reportedly ill. They include Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who has
serious liver problems and gastro-intestinal bleeding. After energetic
international protests, he was moved from Guantánamo prison to a
hospital in Santiago de Cuba. But a niece who is a doctor said the necessary
tests have not been conducted and she thinks that, in his present condition,
a return to prison would put his life in danger.
Pressure has also been put on
families. The wives of several detained dissidents, including journalists,
have been threatened with arrest if they continue to hold peaceful protest
marches dressed in white after mass at Santa Rita church.
Finally, the courts on 3 June
began begun issuing rulings on the appeals that were lodged against the
sentences. The Havana people's supreme court has so far upheld the sentences
passed on seven journalists, sending a clear message that there will be no
clemency.
www.rsf.org
Reporters Without Borders has created a page on its website (www.rsf.org)
entitled
"Cuba,
the world's biggest prison for journalists." Visitors will find
regularly updated information on each of the imprisoned journalists
(including date of arrest, trial, conditions of detention and biographical
information), international reactions to their sentences and, in general,
information about news censorship in Cuba. Visitors are invited to sign a
petition for their release.
The independent
press since the March crackdown
The magazines De Cuba and Luz
Cubana (which can be downloaded from www.rsf.org) have been the first victims
of the round-up of dissidents at the end of March. Published in December 2002
and February 2003, they have not survived the arrests of their respective
editors, Ricardo González Alfonso and Normando Hernández, and
the confiscation of the equipment needed for their production. There were the
first privately-owned, independent magazines to appear in Cuba since 1959.
Although the detained journalists
include nine of the editors of the approximately 20 privately-owned news
agencies in Cuba, the independent press has survived. But harassment of
those still free has increased. Searches, police "visits" to their
homes, summonses for questioning at state security centres, pressure on
family members and threats of further trials make up the arsenal used by the
authorities to pressure them into stopping their activity. Some 20 journalists
have been targeted in this way since 1 May.
The independent journalists
who are still free have not been discouraged. But in the absence of clear
signs of the intentions of the authorities, they are being prudent. Bylines
no longer appear on articles published by the Miami-based cubanet.org
website, which carries the material of some 10 independent news agencies.
A new public
awareness campaign
More than 120,000 French people choose Cuba as a
holiday destination each year, drawn by the sun, beaches and mythical appeal
of its bearded revolutionaries.
Reporters Without Borders will
conduct a poster campaign from 8 to 22 July to promote awareness of the
serious human rights situation in Cuba. The image used is that of the
famous May 1968 poster showing a riot policeman with a truncheon in one
hand and a shield in the other, but the face has been replaced by Ernesto
Che Guevara's. The caption says: "Welcome to Cuba, the world's biggest
prison for journalists." Underneath it says: "Seventy-five
dissidents, including nearly 30 journalists, were arrested at the end of
March 2003 and sentenced to long prison terms. Their crime? Thinking
differently from the government."
Designed by the Rampazzo agency,
the poster aims to tell people that behind the myth of the Cuban revolution,
which still draws many tourists, there is a totalitarian regime that uses "Che"
as an icon to legitimise repression. The poster also suggests that a myth
that fed the dreams of an entire generation in the 1960s has become what that
generation hated: a police state. A total of 1,100 posters of 40 cm x 60 cm
in size will be displayed in Paris from 8 to 22 July by the Art Vision
network.
Five thousand postcards have
been printed with the same picture. They will be distributed to tourists
leaving on flights for Havana. The text on the back will urge them to take
an interest in the Cuba that goes deeper than "the picture postcard
clichés."
"Welcome to
Cuba"
Have you chosen Cuba because of the charm of its
population, its dreamy beaches, its rum and its fast-paced rhythms? You
should know where you are going! Behind the picture postcard clichés,
the sun doesn't shine for everyone in the land of the Revolution. "Che"
is nowadays just an icon used by the authorities to legitimise repression.
Seventy-five dissidents,
including nearly 30 journalists, were arrested at the end of March 2003 and
sentenced to long prison terms. Their crime? Thinking differently from the
government. As a result, Cuba has become the world's biggest prison for
journalists.
These government opponents,
poets, journalists and human rights activists are held in Havana, Ciego de
Avila, Camagüey, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. If you visit these
towns, don't forget those who are not enjoying the sun inside their prison
cells.
Find out what is going on and
sign the petitions on www.rsf.org
Finally, English and Spanish
versions will be produced of a 35-second cinema spot warning tourists that
news is censored in Cuba and that 30 journalists are in prison there. They
will be screened in Spain, Canada, the United States and Latin America. The
French-language version is already being screened in 400 cinema auditoriums
in Paris and other major French cities thanks to the Médiavision
network.
Press freedom
investigations: the fate of foreign correspondents and the Catholic press
The March arrests were arrests
were undoubtedly meant to serve as a reminder that, under the constitution,
the state has a monopoly of news in Cuba and only the government press is
permitted.
So what are the conditions of
work like for the foreign news correspondents present in Cuba and for the 15
or so little magazines published by the Catholic Church, which are tolerated
by the authorities? Two Reporters Without Borders surveys have for the first
time looked at the room for manoeuvre available to the representatives of
these two "alternative" press sectors.
Restrictive visa policies,
forbidden topics, constant police surveillance, psychological harassment,
official summonses and deportation are some of the weapons the authorities
use to control the news that reaches the outside world, according to a
dozen foreign journalists who have lived and worked in Cuba. In a report on
their experiences called "Living under the regime's microscope: foreign
journalists in Cuba," (see
the report) one of them says the government assigns up to 30 people to
watch each journalist, which inevitably leads to self-censorship and, says
another reporter, allows the regime to "partly hide the extent of the
repression in the country."
The Catholic press has neither
the resources nor the freedom to rival the official media, says the other
report, "Press freedom in Cuba: the exception of the Church." (see
the report) Few copies of its magazines are printed and technical
resources are few. Except for Vitral, in Pinar del Rio, none criticise the
regime openly for fear of being shut down or jeopardising the difficult
relations between Church and state.
The two reports, the first by
Martine Jacot and the second by Christian Lionet, both of them French
journalists, were written before the recent crackdown. Resident foreign
journalists and the Catholic media were not targeted, but the blow to press
freedom was a warning to them to temper their coverage of events in Cuba.
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, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and
Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.
| 
