Profiles

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, 67, began working as an independent journalist in 1995 and helped found independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro before being given 20 years in prison. Maseda Gutiérrez won CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award in 2008. He was released in February 2011, and now lives in Havana.

Laura Pollán Toledo is the wife of the newly freed Cuban journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez and a leader of the Ladies in White, a group that advocated for the release of their unjustly imprisoned spouses and loved ones.

A physician by profession, José Luis García Paneque, 43, joined the independent news agency Libertad in 1998 after being fired from his job at a hospital in eastern Las Tunas because of his political views. In April 2003, a Cuban court sentenced him to 24 years in prison after he was convicted of acting “against…

Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s program director and senior program coordinator for the Americas, is a widely published journalist. A native of Buenos Aires, he has written extensively for Noticias, the leading Spanish-language newsmagazine. Follow him on Facebook @ CPJ en Español.

Karen Phillips is interim research associate in CPJ’s Americas program. A former associate in CPJ’s Journalists Assistance program, she is the author of the CPJ special report, “A Somali Journalist in Exile.”

Angur Nahar Monty is the diplomatic correspondent for Bangladesh’s Bhorer Kagoj and a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the University of Maryland.

Julio Gálvez Rodríguez worked for Cuban government media for 24 years. In March 2003, as he was working as a freelance reporter in Havana, state security agents arrested him as part of the massive crackdown. He was given a 14-year prison sentence.

Aaron Leaf is a freelance journalist and a print media trainer in Monrovia, Liberia. You can follow his blog at aaronleaf.tumblr.com. Reach him at [email protected].

Shehnilla Mohamed, a freelance journalist based in Johannesburg, is CPJ’s southern Africa correspondent.

Maria Salazar Ferro is director of CPJ’s Emergencies Department, overseeing the organization’s assistance and safety work worldwide. She is president of the board of the ACOS (A Culture of Safety) Alliance, a coalition aimed at improving protections for freelancers. She joined CPJ in 2005 and has served as coordinator for the Journalist Assistance Program and…