Miami (May 15, 2009)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today condemned what it qualified as proof of the Cuban government's intolerance upon learning of the three-year prison term handed down to independent journalist Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet Hernández. Du Bourchet joins 26 other journalists jailed for exercising their right to freedom of the press.
Editor of the unofficial news agency Havana Press, Du Bouchet was arrested and charged with contempt and distribution of enemy propaganda on April 18 while on his way to visit family members in the town of Artemisa in La Habana province. On May 13 he was put on trial and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. This follows a one-year prison sentence on August 9, 2005, on charges relating to his work as a journalist, and release in 2006 after serving the 12 months’ sentence.
IAPA President Enrique Santos Calderón, editor of the Bogotá, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo, declared, “Once again we can see the level of intolerance in Cuba, which, besides being the country in the Western Hemisphere with the highest number of imprisoned journalists, also imposes restrictions and deprives its citizens of the right to express themselves, to know and to access information.”
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, added that in Cuba some 60 independent journalists are subjected to ongoing harassment and must attempt to carry out their independent work under pressure. “Their materials and money are confiscated, they are hounded and fined, their communications are tapped, and they are under constant watch and intimidation.”
He added, “We believe that if Cuba is to be considered for re-entry into the Organization of American States it will first have show political will by freeing the jailed journalists and other prisoners of conscience.”
The number of journalists imprisoned in Cuba now totals 27 under sentences ranging from one to 28 years. The majority was convicted following what came to be known as “Black Spring” in March 2003 when the government jailed 75 dissidents. The IAPA has been demanding government recognition of the independent practice of journalism and the unconditional release of the imprisoned reporters, especially the most serious cases of those in very poor health, among them Normando Hernández, José Luis García Paneque, Alfredo Pulido López, Pedro Argüelles Morán, Pablo Pacheco and Miguel Galván Gutiérrez.
