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New crackdown launched
against the independent press
Reporters
Without Borders,
February 22, 2006.
Reporters Without Borders has express concern
that a renewed crackdown has been unleashed
against the independent press and that independent
journalists are suffering harassment.
Since the "black spring" of 2003,
those journalists who are still working
are subjected to constant pressure from
the Cuban authorities. The Cuban Commission
for Human Rights and National Reconciliation
(CCDHRN) has condemned this new wave of
political repression since the start of
2006 that has taken the form of violence
and threats towards the independent press.
"This series of persecutory measures
taken against dissident journalists could
very well auger a new 'black spring'",
the press freedom organisation said.
"Nevertheless, no crackdown however
far-reaching can ever completely end the
existence of an independent press in Cuba,"
it added, wondering, "Why do the authorities
refuse to see that reality. Also why do
they refuse to allow journalists to emigrate
if they wish to, like Jorge Olivera, whom
they would like to see leave? This attitude
is both unfair and nonsensical," it
concluded.
Locked up during the March 2003 crackdown
and released for health reasons on 6 December
2004, Jorge Olivera Castillo was summoned
to appear on 21 February 2006, before a
municipal people's court in Havana where
judges informed him that he was banned from
leaving the capital.
Olivera, his wife and two children, have
had a legal visa for the United States since
October 2002, but the authorities unfairly
refuse to allow them the right to leave.
Moreover, he is now forced to work for
a work centre chosen for him by the court.
He also has to appear before the state organisation
which defines the country's ideological
line. If he fails to follow the orders he
is given by the municipal people's court,
he will automatically be returned to prison.
He is nevertheless determined to continue
his work as a journalist, as he confirmed
to Reporters Without Borders after the hearing.
Elsewhere, on 13 February, the independent
journalist Roberto Santana Rodríguez
was summoned to the police station in Marianao
in the capital. After waiting for two hours
he was seen by an officer, Moisés,
who showed him a file containing various
articles he had written. This file could
be used by the authorities against the journalist,
putting him at risk of imprisonment.
The president of a Committee for the Defence
of the Revolution (CDR), Armando Rivero,
threatened Oscar Sanchez Madán in
Havana on 17 February for having quoted
his name on his programme on Miami-based
Radio Martí. The journalist was previously
physically attacked by paramilitaries on
21 and 23 January.
On 19 February, Gilberto Manuel González
Delgado, head of the Notilibre news agency
in Havana, had his home searched by a state
security officer and two members of the
CDR. A type-writer and articles were seized.
He was threatened with being charged under
the 88 Law on the "protection of Cuba's
independence and economy", if he continued
to do his job. He would face a 20-year prison
term.
The Cuban authorities on 20 February 2006
banned the sale of foreign newspapers such
as Hola!, Mecánica popular, Muy interesante
and El País on the grounds that they
are "ideologically dangerous".
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