CPJ welcomes release of Cuban journalist

New York, April 10, 2013–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Cuban journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a reporter with the independent news agency Centro de Información Hablemos Press, who had been imprisoned since September while reporting on an international medical donation to Cuba.

“We are overjoyed that Calixto Ramón Martinez Arias has been released and relieved that his ordeal is over,” said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. “Cuban authorities must end their practice of detaining or intimidating journalists who report independently. Reforms in Cuba cannot be fully credible until they include a free press.”

Martínez Arias was officially accused of contempt for shouting anti-Castro slogans after he was harassed by authorities in September 2012, but was never formally tried. The journalist, who was on intermittent hunger strikes, described the inhumane conditions he faced in prison.