CUBA

CUBA WHEREAS the year 2000 is for the Cuban press the fortieth anniversary of the permanent closure and confiscation of the independent media WHEREAS more than 41 years after this expropriation and the complete annihilation of press freedom at the hands of one of the most repressive and long-lasting dictatorships in world history, Cuban journalists are the target of constant persecution WHEREAS at this time, Bernabé Arévalo Padrón, Joel de Jesús Díaz Hernández and Manuel González Castellanos, are in prison without having committed any crime, but for just exercising the human right of free expression through the modest means available to independent journalists in Cuba WHEREAS Principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states that, “no people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press; the exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people,” Principle 2 states that, “every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely. No one may restrict or deny these rights,” Principle 5 states that, “prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dis¬semination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to raise its voice in protest at the more than 41 years of silence imposed on the Cuban press through the general seizure of all independent media, which has no precedent in Latin America to reiterate its condemnation of the totalitarian government of Cuba for the jailing, repression and harassment of independent journalists to demand that the Cuban government release the three journalists jailed for exercising the human right of free expression to reiterate the request made at the Midyear Meeting in Cancún, Mexico, that member newspapers of the IAPA publish news from the independent Cuban news agencies and that when their correspondents travel to the island they visit the independent journalists as a sign of solidarity.