Reporters Without Borders releases its report : No surrender by
independent journalists, five years on from "black spring"
As Raúl Castro was formally invested as Cuban head of state in the last
week of February 2008, a Reporters Without Borders' special
correspondent was in Cuba examining the state of press freedom, five
years after the "black spring" of March 2003. On the eve of the fifth
anniversary of this unprecedented crackdown which made Cuba the world's
second largest prison for journalists, the worldwide press freedom
organisation - banned from visiting Cuba - releases the report of this
visit.
Five years after "black spring" in which 27 journalists were arrested
and unfairly sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years in
prison, 19 of them are still in jail in very harsh conditions. Among
them, Ricardo González Alfonso, former editor of the magazine De Cuba
and correspondent for the organisation, sentenced to 20 years, who in
February was sent back to his cell in Combinado del Este jail in Havana
after a long stay in the jail's military hospital. Also victims of
"black spring" and "adopted" by several foreign media, independent
journalist Fabio Prieto Llorente, and Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, of the
Havana Press agency - respectively serving 20 and 26 years, continue to
suffer, like most of their colleagues in the same situation, solitary
confinement, denial of medical care and restrictions to family visits.
To the 19 journalists imprisoned in March 2003, four more have been
added since 2005, three of them after Raúl Castro succeeded his brother,
temporarily at first, on 31 July 2006.
The report also stresses the extreme difficulties for those not in
prison to manage to work as journalists in a country in which the state
has a monopoly on news, printing and broadcasting. It also reveals
however that the independent Cuban press has done better than just
survive the "black spring" which almost crushed it. A new generation
born out of an emerging civil society, has taken over websites and the
very few underground magazines, people like the blogger Yoani Sánchez.
These new networks, made up of young people who have only known the
Castroist regime, are trying to use their own resources to develop an
alternative press addressed directly to their compatriots within Cuba,
the independent media only managing to express itself to the Cuban diaspora.
Would these developments be possible without the change at the highest
level of state? Probably not. The Raúl Castro presidency has done
nothing to improve human rights in the country, but some gestures have
been made. The release, on 15 February 2008, of independent journalist
Alejandro González Raga and three other dissidents, also imprisoned
during the "black spring" constituted a first sign of openness. Another
came three days later after Raúl Castro's investiture, when Cuba on 27
February signed two UN pacts, one on economic, social and cultural
rights and the other on civil and political rights. The 13 March
announcement of the lifting of restrictions on individual acquisition of
computer equipment also represents a very positive step.
Reporters Without Borders notes these first signs of change and supports
in this regard talks begun by the Spanish government to secure the
release of the 23 imprisoned journalists. The organisation also calls on
the US government to life restrictions on communications which obstruct
access for Cubans within the country to the Internet and contacts
between local journalists and the foreign-based media they work for.
Finally, it urges EU embassies in Havana to further open their doors to
the dissident press. This request particularly relates to France which
takes over the rotating presidency of the EU from 1st July 2008. These
recommendations will however get nowhere as long as the Cuban government
has not honoured the clauses in the UN pacts which it has just signed.
On the occasion of the publication of this report, Reporters Without
Borders wishes to express its deepest sympathy for Juan Carlos Herrera
Acosta, of the Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO), sentenced during
"black spring" to 20 years in prison, whose former wife and his daughter
died in an accident in Guantánamo, eastern Cuba on 12 March 2008.
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