14.05.09
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of independent
journalist Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet, who was arrested after a verbal
exchange with a policeman in Artemisa (in Havana province) on 18 April.
Du Bouchet, who is a reporter for Habana Press, an independent news
agency, was previously jailed from August 2005 to August 2006 for a
similar reason.
"The brakes have been applied to the initial moves towards more openness
adopted by Raúl Castro after his formal installation as president in
February 2008 and this is the context in which Du Bouchet has been
jailed," Reporters Without Borders said. "Dissident journalists are
again finding it hard to get access to the Internet in hotels. They are
being constantly harassed by State Security agents."
The press freedom organisation added: "The regime has resumed cracking
down after trying to acquire more respectability with the international
community. It will not be able to play this double game for long."
A total of 24 journalists are currently detained in Cuba. Since the July
2006 transfer of power from Fidel to Raúl Castro, three journalists have
been arrested and jailed under an article in the Cuban criminal code
that allows the authorities to imprison someone for representing a
"pre-crime social danger," even though they have committed no crime.
Little is known about the circumstances of Du Bouchet's arrest except
that he was taken to the police station in Artemisa after an exchange
for words with a police officer. He was transferred on 10 May to Melena
2 prison, to the south of the capital, where he is awaiting trial on a
charge of "disrespect for authority." According to the criminal code, he
faces a possible sentence of between one and four years in prison.
Because of his dissident journalistic activities, Du Bouchet has been
threatened with jail several times since his release in August 2006.
Meanwhile, according to the Payolibre website, State Security agents
went to the Havana home of independent journalist Lisbán Hernández
Sánchez on 7 May and warned him that he could be jailed for four years
as a "pre-crime social danger." Aged 27, Hernández functions as a press
officer for the Comisión Martiana, a dissident group.
Nineteen of the 24 journalists currently in prison in Cuba were arrested
during the March 2003 "Black Spring" crackdown and were given sentences
ranging from 14 to 27 years in prison solely because of their views. One
of them, Ricardo González Alfonso, editor of the magazine De Cuba and
Reporters Without Borders correspondent, is due to be released in 2023.
Reporters sans frontières - Cuba (16 May 2009)
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