IAPA condemns attack of Cuban authorities against independent journalists

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned a new wave of Cuban government repression against independent journalists, including temporary arrests, interrogations, threats of trial, harassment, prohibition of travelling abroad, citations, interrogations, and other attacks.

IAPA President Christopher Barnes and Roberto Rock, president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, recently expressed their condemnation of the continuous repression that seeks to silence “the brave journalists and independent media” in Cuba.

On January 27, the editor-in-chief of the news portal 14ymedio, Reinaldo Escobar, was banned from leaving the country. The journalist planned to travel to Colombia, where he was invited by a university to participate in a conference. When requesting an explanation, an immigration officer at the airport ordered him to visit the police station in his area of residence to know the reason for the travel impediment. Escobar is not being prosecuted or investigated for any crime, does not have pending fines, and does not have a criminal record, according to 14ymedio.

Last year, journalists Luz Escobar and Ricardo Fernández of 14ymedio were also banned from leaving the country, as well as Abraham Jiménez Enoa, from El Estornudo; Boris González Arenas, Maykel González Vivero and Jorge Amado from other independent media.

On January 8, the police raided the residence of Iliana Hernández, a contributor of CiberCuba, confiscated her computer, a mobile phone, documents, and accused the journalist of receiving stolen goods, a crime punishable under the criminal code with deprivation of liberty for up to one year, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

Although Hernandez presented documents that legitimised the acquisition of the equipment, it was not returned. She was also threatened with a fine for the dissemination of “information contrary to the social interest, morals, good customs and integrity of the people”.

In mid-January, the family of journalist and attorney Roberto de Jesús Quiñones Haces, who was sentenced to one year in prison and imprisoned since last September, decried the deterioration of his health.

Barnes, managing director of The Gleaner Company (Media) Ltd, and Rock, director of the Mexican news portal La Silla Rota, reiterated the IAPA’s complaint about repression in Cuba, based on the country’s legal constitutional framework and criminal code, as well as in laws and decrees that justify sanctions against the free exercise of freedom of expression and of the press.

Taken from sipiapa.org