World Press Freedom
Review
Fidel Castro's Communist government and its intelligence apparatus, the
State Security Department (DSE), continue to clamp down on Cuba's beleaguered
independent press. The authorities routinely harass, threaten, arrest,
interrogate and imprison journalists, often with the goal of "persuading"
them to leave the country. One journalist, Bernado Arévalo Padrón,
is currently serving a six year prison term for "insulting" the
president.
Although several U.S. news organisations – CNN, the Associated Press,
the Chicago Tribune and the Dallas Morning News – operate permanent bureaus
in the country, visiting foreign reporters are also harassed, threatened or even
expelled.
Cuba's 100-odd independent journalists – who work for some 20
independent news agencies not recognised by the authorities – are generally
regarded as "counter-revolutionaries". As they are not allowed to
publish or broadcast in Cuba, these dissident journalists are forced to fax
their stories to the United States, or dictate them over the telephone, for use
in foreign publications or on the Internet. Their phone calls are monitored,
they are prevented from travelling freely, and they are routinely put under
house arrest to prevent them from covering newsworthy events. Typewriters must
be registered and owning a fax machine or photocopier without authorisation is
punishable by imprisonment. The Internet is also severely regulated.
Laws against anti-government propaganda and insults against officials carry
penalties of three months to one year in prison, with sentences of up to three
years if President Castro or members of the National Assembly or Council of
State are the object of criticism. Charges of disseminating enemy propaganda,
which includes expressing opinions at odds with those of the government, can
bring sentences of up to 14 years. The 1997 Law of National Dignity, which
provides for jail sentences of three to ten years for "anyone who, in a
direct or indirect form, collaborates with the enemy's media", is aimed
directly at the independent agencies who send their material abroad.
Although he has been eligible for a conditional release since October 2000,
Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, founder of the independent news agency Línea
Sur Press, remains in jail. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment on 31
October 1997 for "insulting" President Castro and Vice President
Carlos Lage in a story he had published in which he revealed how a helicopter
transported meat from a farm in Aguada de Pasajeros, a town in Ceinfuegos
province, to Havana, while the inhabitants in the town went hungry. He continues
to be held in the labour camp El Diamante, Cienfuegos province, and his health
has suffered as a result of prolonged imprisonment under poor conditions.
Three journalists were released from Cuban prisons this year.
Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, executive director of the
independent news agency Cooperativa Avileña de Periodistas Independientes
(CAPI), was released from prison on 17 January after serving two years of a four
year sentence for "dangerousness". He was released without explanation
and informed that the rest of his sentence had been suspended, although he could
be jailed again if he returns to work as an independent journalist.
Díaz Hernández was arrested on 18 January 1999 in his home
town of Morón, in the central province of Ciego de Avila, and sentenced
the following day to four years in prison. His conviction was based on the fact
that he had received six warnings for "dangerousness" under article 72
of the penal code.
Manuel Antonio González Castellanos, a correspondent for the
independent news agency Cuba Press in Holguín, was released on 26
February after virtually completing his sentence. He was arrested on 1 October
1998 on charges of "insulting" the head of state after making critical
statements about President Castro to state security agents who had stopped him
as he was walking home from a visit with a friend. After awaiting trial in the
Holguín Provisional Prison for seven months, he was convicted by the San
Germán Municipal Court, Holguín province, on 6 May 1999, and
sentenced to two years and seven months in prison under article 144 of the penal
code. While the charges against González Castellanos did not arise
directly from his work, local journalists believed that the journalist was
provoked by state security agents in retaliation for his reporting on the
activities of political dissidents.
Journalist and labour activist José Orlando González Bridón,
jailed since 15 December 2000 and sentenced on 24 May 2001 to two years'
imprisonment for spreading "false information" and "enemy
propaganda", was released on 22 November. González Bridón,
head of the small opposition group, the Cuban Democratic Workers' Confederation
(CTDC), was the first member of the opposition in Cuba to receive a prison
sentence for an article published on the Internet.
Since October 1999, González Bridón had been writing articles
for the Web site of the Miami-based Cuba Free Press, but his trial centred on a
5 August 2000 article, published on the Web site, in which the labour activist
alleged that the CTDC's national coordinator, Joanna González Herrera,
who was killed by her ex-husband, had died as a result of "police
negligence".
After a one-day trial behind closed doors on 24 May, the court found González
Bridón guilty of disseminating "false information" under
article 115 of the penal code and sentenced him to two years imprisonment in
June, despite the fact that the state prosecution had only requested a one-year
sentence.
On 22 November, González Bridón was granted a conditional
release. Prison authorities told him he was being released for "good
behaviour", but González Bridón believes his release was a "gesture"
prior to the Ibero-American Summit, held in Lima on 23 and 24 November, and
another meeting between representatives of the European Union and Cuba in
Havana. Under the stipulations of his conditional release, in effect until 14
December when his sentence expired, he was prohibited from leaving the
municipality where he resides or meeting with members of the opposition.
Throughout the year, state security agents continued to harass independent
journalists and their relations.
On 12 January, Antonio Femenías, director of the news agency Patria,
and Roberto Valdivia, a Patria reporter and human rights activist, were harassed
by state security agents after meeting with the two Czech nationals. Femenías
and Valdivia were detained by DSE agents and interrogated for three hours after
meeting the previous night with Ivan Pilip, a Czech parliamentarian and the
country's former finance minister, and Jan Bubenik, a former student leader in
the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
Accused of holding "subversive talks" and handing over "resources"
to dissidents, Pilip and Bubenik were detained for almost a month, embittering
already hostile ties between Cuba and the Czech Republic. In 2000, the Czech
Republic had co-sponsored a resolution before the UN Commission on Human Rights
in Geneva condemning human rights violations in Cuba.
Three journalists, Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández, Carlos
Brizuela Yera and Dorka de Céspedes, were detained in August.
On 22 August, Díaz Hernández, executive director of the
independent news agency CAPI, and Brizuela Yera, a correspondent for the
Cooperativa Avileña de Periodistas Independientes (CPIC) news agency,
were detained by state security agents, who confiscated four radios, as well as
books. The two journalists were released eight hours later. In May, Brizuela
Yera had been detained for four days after police suspected him of being the
author of anti-government posters.
De Céspedes of the Havana Press news agency was also detained on 22
August as she was preparing to cover a demonstration.
On 29 August, Milagros Beatón, director of the independent news
agency Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO), was summoned by DSE agents.
According to the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), police
agents promised to obtain a permit for her to visit her husband, who is in exile
in the United States. In exchange, she would have to stop publishing articles on
a Miami-based Web site, hand over her fax machine to the authorities and
dissolve the news agency.
According to RSF, Beatón is the third APLO director since May 2000,
as her two predecessors were forced to go into exile due to pressure from the
authorities. Santiago Santana, her predecessor, left Cuba in May 2000 following
repeated cases of harassment. Luis Alberto Rivera Leyva, who replaced him, fled
the island on 31 July 2001 after being arrested four times in 2000.
Four days earlier, Juan Carlos Garcell, a reporter for APLO, was attacked by
a police agent who insulted and beat him for no apparent reason.
In September, the government denied emigration permission for five
independent journalists. According to the Sociedad de Periodistas Manuel Márquez
Sterling, an association of approximately 50 independent journalists created in
May and named after an early 20th century Cuban journalist, the authorities
withheld the exit permits of five of their colleagues – Osvaldo de Céspedes
Feliú, Milagros Beatón Betancourt, Ohalis Victore Irribarren,
Jorge Dantes Abad Herrera and Manuel Portal – even though U.S. immigration
authorities had granted them visas on the grounds of political persecution. A
sixth journalist, Gustavo Cardero Rodríguez, whose exit permit was
confiscated in September 2000, attempted to reach the United States by sea in
August of this year and was picked up the U.S Coast Guard, who brought him to
the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay.
The Sociedad de Periodistas Manuel Márquez Sterling was again the
focus of persecution in October when state security agents banned the
organisation from giving training courses. According to the Committee to Protect
Journalists, DSE agents came to the offices of the association and warned its
president, Ricardo González Alfonso, that they would not allow the group
to offer its 2001-2002 courses. The DSE agents also told González Alfonso
that the courses were illegal because the journalists did not have a license to
teach. The classes, including Spanish grammar, journalism, and English, were
scheduled to open on 15 October and are free for association members.
On October 14, DSE agents visited the homes of independent journalists Jorge
Olivera Castillo, Graciela Alfonso, Dorka de Céspedes Vila, and Aimeé
Cabrera Álvarez, all of whom are active in the Sociedad de Periodistas
Manuel Márquez Sterling, and warned them that attending the classes was
illegal.
On 29 October, a DSE agent prevented a class from going ahead at the
association's offices. The agent ordered one of the association's teachers, Raúl
Rivero, director of the Cuba Press news agency and one of IPI's 50 World Press
Freedom Heroes, to leave the premises. Journalists Carmelo Díaz Fernández,
Pedro Pablo Alvarez and Víctor Manuel Domínguez were also expelled
from the association's offices.
Rivero's wife was harassed by the authorities on 8 November. According to
RSF, Blanca Reyes Castañon was summoned by the Havana police under
suspicion of trafficking in foreign currency. When she arrived at the police
station, an official asked her how much money she had received from abroad, if
her husband received money from the New Herald, a Cuban opposition newspaper
published in the U.S., and if she and her husband distributed dollars to
dissidents. "Finally, they suggested that I should leave the country,
together with Raúl," Castañon said.
When not persecuting local journalists, Castro's government also lashed out
at the foreign press for its "negative" coverage of Cuba.
Pascal Fletcher, in particular, bore the brunt of attacks by the official
press. On 6 January, the official Communist daily, Granma, wrote that the
British correspondent for Reuters news agency and the Financial Times was "full
of venom against the Cuban revolution". Three days later, Fletcher was
criticised in a television programme for his "provocative, tendentious and
perfidious attitude".
In a speech broadcast on Cuban television on 17 and 18 January, President
Castro criticised the foreign press for being "completely unobjective."
Although he did not mention any media or journalists by name, he criticised
journalists "who dedicate themselves to defaming the revolution" or
who "transmit not only lies, but gross insults against the revolution and
against myself in particular." Castro also threatened to cancel the
operating permits of foreign media. "Rather than expel one reporter, it
would be more reasonable to cancel that agency's permit, which allows them to
report from Cuba," he said.
http://www.freemedia.at/wpfr/cuba.htm
2000 World Press Freedom Review |
