Fighting impunity with solidarity, unity, and a symbol
We will not make significant advances in the battle against crimes against journalists and the impunity surrounding them without the creation of a sense of unity and solidarity among a country’s news media and journalists. Nor will the cause advance without a strategy by international press freedom organizations to provide support for those two values.
Freed Cuban journalist tells of his ‘dreadful experience’
When I asked Cuban journalist Oscar Sánchez Madan to describe in one sentence his three years in jail, he told me: “I don’t wish on anybody the dreadful experience I had in prison.” A municipal court in Unión de Reyes, province of Matanzas, freed him on Sunday after he completed a three-year prison term. Around 6 a.m.,…
Le Nouvelliste resumes daily publication in Haiti
Three months after the January 12 earthquake, Haiti’s oldest newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, has resumed daily publication. The April 6 issue not only signaled the resumption of daily publication, it marked a return to some normality, said Frantz Duval, the daily’s new editor-in-chief.
Media center in Haiti has become ‘anchor point’ for press
Three months after it opened, Haitian journalists are still benefitting from the wide-ranging services provided by the Media Operations Center, which has provided a workspace for journalists after the earthquake. While radio stations based in the capital are back on the air, the long power cuts and problems accessing the Internet are still prompting journalists…
Technicalities: 10 Questions on WikiLeaks
Monday’s release of graphic video footage of an attack by the U.S. military on two Reuters journalists vividly depicted the dangers involved in covering a battlefield. It also thrust into the spotlight WikiLeaks, the enigmatic Web site responsible for obtaining, decoding, and publicizing the footage. Here’s 10 questions answered on WikiLeaks, including how it works, its goals, and some…
Media in Leogane devastated
Of the 12 radio stations in the city Leogane, south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, only five are back on the air more than two months after the earthquake. Most stations were seriously damaged and several broadcasters are struggling to restore transmission, the head of the Leogane Press Association (APL), Julmane Saint Fort, told CPJ. Saint…
Spain must help free Cuban dissidents
Mark Twain once said, “In our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either.” In the witty genius’ land, the United States, such irony suggests that people should not to waste the opportunities that democracy offers. But in Cuba’s case any humorous…
For bloggers, Cuba remains a dark corner
Another year has passed and we are now remembering the seventh anniversary of the Black Spring. After seven years, have there been any changes? Yes and no. Law 88, a provision calling for the protection of Cuba’s national independence, is still in force. Known as the gag law, it is used to silence Cuban citizens,…
Haiti’s only Creole newspaper is out of business
Haiti’s sole newspaper published exclusively in Creole has disappeared under the rubble of the January 12 earthquake. The Port-au-Prince offices of the monthly Bon Nouvel (Good News) were destroyed, as were the facilities of its La Phalange printing unit, which specialized in the production of Creole-language books and documents.