Authorities must explain conviction of Cuban writer
New York, February 28, 2013–Cuban writer and blogger Ángel Santiesteban Prats is expected to begin serving a five-year jail sentence today on assault and trespassing charges brought by his former wife, accusations he has insisted have been fabricated.
Attacks on the Press in 2012: Cuba
Though Cuba projected an image of a nation opening up economically and politically, it took no substantive steps to promote freedom of expression. The authorities announced plans to eliminate exit visa regulations that had long restricted Cuban travel, but skeptics expressed doubts about the government’s commitment to the reform. The prominent blogger Yoani Sánchez, has…
Eating a cable: Internet access still elusive in Cuba
There is a popular expression in Cuba that is synonymous with difficulty and crisis. When you want to indicate that someone is doing badly economically, it is sufficient to say that he is “eating a cable.” Street humor has identified the act of chewing and swallowing a bundle of wires with scarcity and material want.…
Audio: From Cuban prison, reporter speaks out
Cuba, historically one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, has returned to CPJ’s prison census after a one-year absence. Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, a reporter for the independent news agency Centro de Información Hablemos Press, was imprisoned in September after he started looking into why an international shipment of medicine was allowed to go…
Cuban reporter Flores arrested on anti-state charges
New York, November 9, 2012–Cuban authorities charged journalist Yaremis Flores with anti-state crimes on Wednesday in connection with news articles critical of the government, an arrest that sparked two waves of protests and detentions outside a Havana police station. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to drop the charges against Flores immediately.
CPJ calls for the immediate release of Cuban bloggers
New York, October 5, 2012–The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrest of three independent Cuban bloggers and calls for their immediate release. Yoani Sánchez, one of Cuba’s most prominent bloggers, was detained yesterday along with her husband, journalist Reinaldo Escobar, and blogger Agustín Díaz in the city of Bayamo, according to news reports.
