For jailing journalists, Cuba is the little island that can

For jailing journalists, Cuba is the little island that can
Friday, May 29, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT
BY Tom Warhover

Dear Reader,

Albert Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández has been convicted on charges of
disrespect. Twice.

The first time, in 2005, he served a one-year sentence. On May 12 the
director of the independent news agency Habana Press received another
three years. He was not allowed a lawyer at the trial. His family
couldn't witness the conviction.

Last month, I wrote to you about Roxana Saberi, a freelance journalist
who was jailed by the Iranian government and convicted, in secret, of
espionage. International outrage ensued. She was eventually released and
returned home to the United States.

One reader accused me of impersonating a lemming, blindly following a
popular cause.

So I bring you news of Du Bouchet Hernández. And of Cuba.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 22 journalists are in
prison in this island state of 11.5 million. (Reporters Without Borders
counts 24 journalists.) There is one country with more jailed
journalists: China, home to 1.3 billion people, has 28 behind bars.

The clue to Du Bouchet Hernández's crimes lies in the description of his
news outfit. "Independent" just isn't allowed. One of my students found
the following in the Cuban constitution:

"Citizens have freedom of speech and of the press in keeping with the
objectives of a socialist society. Material conditions for the exercise
of that right are provided by the fact that the press, radio,
television, movies and other organs of the mass media are the state or
social property and can never be private property."

Anything considered "enemy propaganda" is illegal. Anything "disruptive"
to the social order is illegal.

Don't drop your jaw yet. There's more.

The constitution of Cuba allows for "pre-criminal dangerousness." You
don't have to do anything to be guilty; you can simply be someone the
government doesn't like.

And the government of Raul Castro doesn't like Du Bouchet Hernández.

This story won't make the front pages of newspapers or the 24-hour news
talk shows. Saberi was from Fargo, N.D., and held dual citizenship. Du
Bouchet Hernández is a Cuban held by his government.

But the effort to silence speech is one we all have a stake in, whether
it's in the nation called Cuba or in Cuba, Mo.

For jailing journalists, Cuba is the little island that can - Columbia
Missourian (29 May 2009)

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/05/29/jailing-journalists-cuba-little-island-can/