Twitter
Facebook
Email Lists
DonateA recent wave of personnel changes at Spanish state-owned broadcaster Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) has raised concerns about political and ideological influence, with many fearing that journalists closer to the current conservative government are being promoted at the expense of those with alleged progressive views. It is the latest controversy in a long debate about the model for Spain's flagship public broadcaster and, especially, its relations with the government of the hour.
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ Blog
Press Freedom News and Views
Spain
In 2010, following midsummer negotiations between the Catholic Church and the government of President Raúl Castro, Cuban authorities began releasing imprisoned journalists, sending them into forced exile with their families. In April 2011, the last of more than 20 journalists arrived in Spain. They had been granted liberty and respite, and were promised support from Spanish authorities while they settled into the new country. But almost two years after the first crop of journalists arrived in Spain, the four who remain in the country are living under extremely difficult conditions, struggling even to feed themselves.
Desperate realities call for hope. It is not just a game of words, because you don't play with hunger and the future (my own and my family's). It is about going deeper into another version of circumstances. And seeing the rainbow where others see a gloomy sun and a stubborn and relentless rain.
I am writing this declaration of optimism now that the Spanish government has withdrawn the financial aid that it had provided us, when in the summer of 2010, directly from the Cuban jails, we arrived as former prisoners of conscience along with others there just by coincidence, or not.
Spanish press associations have expressed concern about recent episodes of police violence against journalists covering demonstrations against Pope Benedict's four-day visit to Madrid and protests staged as part of the anti-corruption 15-M movement.
Sunday marked the end of the
four-month deadline Cuban President Raúl Castro had agreed to with
representatives of the Cuban Catholic Church and the Spanish government to free
52 prisoners of conscience who remained in jail since the March 2003 crackdown
against dissidents, known as the "Black Spring." The Spanish foreign minister
at the time, Miguel Angel Moratinos, said in Havana on July 8 that the move to
release the prisoners "opens a new era in Cuba." But have things changed
in the EU regarding Cuba? Not really. Has anything changed on the island? Not
really. On Monday, at midnight, 13 of the 52 prisoners remained in jailed.
The Havana government has not explicitly demanded that political prisoners go into exile as a condition of release, but it’s clear that’s what Cuban authorities want. The first journalists and dissidents to be freed from jail were immediately whisked away to Spain, which, along with the Catholic Church, had negotiated for their freedom. That leaves political prisoners with a terrible dilemma: fly to Spain or stay in jail, at least for a while. Thus emerges a moral dimension when assessing news of up to 52 Cuban prisoners, including numerous journalists, being released in the coming weeks. Can a human being live happily in a land he or she never chose? Will they find in Spain, or in some other foreign country, the paradise of freedom they deserve?
Our colleagues at ABC in Madrid covered the arrival in Spain of the newly freed Cuban journalists and dissidents. Photos in this slideshow are by ABC’s Jaime Garcia.
« Previous Image | Next Image »
Reuters put together this video showing supporters waiting in the Cuban airport for the departure of six Cuban journalists for Spain today after their release from prison. Journalists were apparently kept at a distance, so there are no shots of the six here. But, interestingly, the Reuters reporter considers why Raul Castro may have chosen this moment to release 52 political prisoners, including the journalists.
José
Luis García Paneque is one of five Cuban dissidents who
will be released and sent to Spain, international news reports said today.
A disillusioned plastic surgeon-turned-headstrong editor of an independent news
agency, García Paneque, at left, has been jailed since March 2003. At 45, he leaves
prison with a dismal array of illnesses.
The European Court of Human Rights issued a historic sentence on June 1, when it ruled that
Subscribe
