Cuba / Americas

  

A press freedom crisis unfolds in Latin America

As the number of journalists imprisoned globally for their work climbs to record highs, cases of those behind bars in Latin America remained relatively low. A total of six – three in Cuba, two in Nicaragua and one in Brazil – were in custody for their work as of December 1, according to the Committee…

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How China’s Huawei technology is being used to censor news halfway across the world

When a staffer at the independent media website Iwacu in the central African state of Burundi tried to visit the outlet online in late October, they received an error message instead. “Hum. Nous ne parvenons pas à trouver ce site;” the site could not be found  – even though the local media regulator had promised…

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Camila Acosta speaks from house arrest about covering Cuba’s historic protests

“I am not free, but at least I am out of the dungeons,” Camila Acosta told CPJ via messaging app after her release to house arrest on July 16 following a four-day detention for covering the recent protests in Cuba. Acosta, who is based in Havana, covered protests on July 11 for the Cuban independent…

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People use the internet at a hotspot in Havana, Cuba in December 2018. Journalists and bloggers say recent internet regulations could legitimize censorship. (REUTERS/Stringer)

In new Cuban internet measures, journalists see a trap

International media announced the dawn of legal private Wi-Fi in Cuba this July. But a decree published the same month signals that content controls are expanding alongside access, local journalists and bloggers told CPJ.

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A Cuban watches Barack Obama give a speech about resuming diplomatic ties with Cuba. The U.S. President is due to visit the island-nation in March. (AFP/Yamil Lage)

As US-Cuba relations thaw, what’s next for the island’s independent press?

“Our hope is that President Obama will meet journalists working for the alternative media, not just to cover his visit, but to start a dialogue,” said Elaine Díaz Rodríguez, director of Periodismo de Barrio (Neighborhood Journalism) a website focusing on climate change and the impact of natural disasters on local communities. Díaz, who last year…

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Inter-American Human Rights System, campaigns against defamation laws keep journalists from jail in Americas

When a prison guard told Ángel Santiesteban Prats that he would be released from jail on a scorching summer day in July, the Cuban independent writer and blogger decided to ignore him, brushing off the news as a cruel joke. By then, Santiesteban had already spent two years and five months in prison, half of…

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Cubans gather around a television in Havana as Raúl Castro announces the restoration of diplomatic ties between Cuba and the U.S. (AFP/Yamil Lage)

In Cuba, case for harassing press has collapsed

Throughout the years, the Cuban government has justified the imprisonment of independent journalists on charges that they were acting against the State’s sovereignty at the behest of the United States. During the so-called Black Spring in March 2003, when the government then led by President Fidel Castro launched a massive crackdown against dissidents while the…

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Blogger Yoani Sanchez visits CPJ's New York offices in 2013. (CPJ/Nicole Schilit)

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez launches independent news site

Late last October, as I accompanied Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez in a cab ride from LaGuardia Airport to her hotel in Manhattan, we talked nonstop about what had changed in Cuba during 2013 and about her plans for 2014. Two things she told me then were particularly striking. 

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CPJ testifies on challenges to democracy in the Americas

Carlos Lauría’s testimony starts at 1:10 in the video. Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s Americas senior program coordinator, provided testimony before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of US House of Representatives on Tuesday. Lauría emphasized that violence and government harassment are the main emerging trends that illustrate the major challenges facing the press in the Western…

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Haunted by cancer after Cuba’s Black Spring

As the world welcomes celebrated Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez on her first international tour in a decade, we must also remember journalist Calixto Ramón Martínez Arias, who continues to be confined not only to the island nation, but to a prison cell in Havana Province.

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