Attacks on the Press 2001: Americas Analysis
AGAINST A BACKDROP OF TROUBLED ECONOMIES AND DEMOCRACIES, the Americas saw an increase in violent and verbal attacks against journalists during 2001. The number of journalists murdered in the region has grown, with 11 killed for their work in 2001, compared to seven in 2000 and six in 1999. The violence is also occurring in…
Attacks on the Press 2001: Cuba
During 2001, Cuban authorities continued to wield an assortment of repressive tools to silence independent journalism: harassment and intimidation; prison terms and threats of prosecution; detention; disruption of phone communications; and restrictions on the freedom of movement, among others. In May 2001, for the seventh straight year, CPJ named President Fidel Castro Ruz to its…
Attacks on the Press 2001: Journalists in Prison
There were 118 journalists in prison around the world at the end of 2001 who were jailed for practicing their profession. The number is up significantly from the previous year, when 81 journalists were in jail, and represents a return to the level of 1998, when 118 were also imprisoned.
Police assault journalist
New York, March 14, 2002—An independent Cuban journalist is recuperating at home after suffering a brutal assault by local police earlier this month, CPJ has learned. Two other journalists who protested the attack remain in detention. Around 11:30 a.m. on March 4, CubaPress correspondent Jesús Álvarez Castillo was covering a demonstration by the human rights…
Reuters journalists attacked by state agents
New York, February 28, 2002—Police and state security agents yesterday attacked Reuters journalists Alfredo Tedeschi and Andrew Cawthorne with batons while they covered an incident in front of the Mexican embassy in Havana. A group of Cuban citizens used a bus to crash into the gates of the embassy in hopes of seeking asylum, according…
Courses banned, journalists harassed
New York, October 24, 2001—State security agents banned an organization of independent local journalists from giving training courses and harassed some of its members, according to local CPJ sources. On the afternoon of October 12, two Department of State Security (DSE) officers came to the offices of an independent journalists’ association and warned its president…
Journalist jailed for distributing “false information”
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to condemn the unjust prosecution of José Orlando González Bridón, a Cuban journalist and labor activist who was recently sentenced to two years in jail for distributing “false information.”
Jailed journalist charged with distributing “enemy propaganda”
New York, May 23, 2001 — After a postponement, the trial of a jailed Cuban journalist is now scheduled to begin on Friday, May 25. José Orlando González Bridón, a Cuban journalist and labor activist, has been jailed since December 15, 2000. While the nature of the charges against González Bridón was initially unclear, CPJ…