Polish, Swiss journalists detained in Cuba

Polish, Swiss journalists detained in Cuba
Monday, December 5, 2005

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): A Polish and a Swiss journalist were detained early
Friday in Cuba as they met with a member of the Caribbean island nation's
political opposition, Cuban human rights activists said Friday.
Anna Bikont and Nelly Norton were detained by Cuban security officials in
the town of Santi Spiritus, located 270 miles southeast of Havana, according
to Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National
Reconciliation.
Bikont works for Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, while the employer of
Norton, who has both Swiss and Italian nationality, was unknown.
Also detained was their guide Gerardo Sanchez, Elizardo Sanchez's brother.
According to Sanchez, the reporters were sent back to Havana Friday where
they will likely be expelled.
Bikont and Norton entered Cuba on tourist visas and not the journalist visas
required by the Cuban government to work on the island.
The two reporters were detained after speaking with Cuban dissidents. Their
notes, pictures and air tickets were confiscated, a diplomatic source told
AFP.
In Warsaw, Polish foreign ministry spokesman Pawel Dobrowolski confirmed the
detention, adding that the "life, health and security" of the two women are
not in danger.
"We consider that this amounts to three arbitrary detentions," Sanchez said.
"A journalist can go to any country on a private visit and learn about the
country. They were seeing reality and visiting people outside the
governmental sphere," he told AFP.
Sanchez said his brother was the only a guide to accompany them "because
they were traveling alone and they could have been at risk of criminal
actions like those suffered by at least two foreign tourists in the last
weeks, who were robbed," Sanchez said.
In May, six Polish nationals, including three journalists who had come to
Cuba to cover a meeting of opponents to veteran communist leader Fidel
Castro, were detained in the island state.
Days before, two Polish European lawmakers who had travelled across the
Atlantic to attend the opposition group's gathering were refused entry into
Cuba.

http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2005/12/05/detained.shtml