Miami (June 6, 2008)The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today
condemned the Cuban government for the arrest of and threats made to
independent newsman Carlos Serpa Maceira, reminded it to observe
tolerance of press freedom and called on it to free 25 journalists still
imprisoned.
In a telephone call to the IAPA Serpa Maceira, of the Sindical Press
news agency and Cuba correspondent of the Sweden-based magazine
Misceláneas de Cuba, said he was arrested at 5:00 a.m. today at a house
in the Old Havana district of the Cuban capital by two State Security
agents and a National Police officer who took him to a police station,
where he was charged with engaging in ¨provocative and mercenary acts
under the guidance of the United States Interests Section in Cuba¨.
The chairman of the IAPA´s Committee on Freedom of the Press and
Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, declared, ?It is about time that the
government of Cuba call a halt to its reactionary methods and put into
practice tolerance of freedom of the press and free speech. One of the
first steps should be the release of the 25 independent journalists that
remain in prison for exercising their right to express an opinion¨.
Serpa Maceira reported that he was ordered by officials to stop working
as a journalist and warned that he would be sent to the Island of Youth,
where he was born, because he lacked permission to live in the Cuban
capital.
He also sent an e-mail reporting on what had happened to him and
declaring that he planned to continue working as a journalist. ¨They
issued me with an Official Warning, which I refused to sign¨, he said.
¨In it they accuse me of covering an aborted demonstration in Havana on
June 4 for the 19th anniversary of China´s Tianamen Square incidents,
claiming my act was a counter-revolutionary provocation¨. He added that
the arrest was due to his having broadcast his report live on
Miami-based Radio Martí radio.
http://www.sipiapa.org/espanol/pressreleases/chronologicaldetail.cfm?PressReleaseID=2126
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