Miami (October 14, 2013)—The arbitrary arrest of three independent journalists in Cuba today brought a protest from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which called for their immediate release.
On the eve of its General Assembly, which begins on Friday in Denver, Colorado, the IAPA rejected the detention of the journalists and recalled that government repression of freedom of expression in Cuba has been increasing in recent months.
Last Thursday (October 10) detained in Havana was Echevarría Driggs, correspondent of the magazine Misceláneas de Cuba, and the following day also arrested in the Cuban capital, under different circumstances, were Águila Montero, director of the Social Agency of Independent Journalists (ASPI), and Cácer Díaz, correspondent of the Hablemos Press Information Center.
According to data complied by the Cuban Human Rights and National Reconciliation Commission in September a total of 708 cases of arbitrary detentions were reported, one of the highest figures in the last four years.
Taking part in the half-yearly IAPA meeting, to be held October 18-22, will be the vice chair for Cuba of the organization’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Yoani Sánchez, founder of the blog Generación Y, who will present the report on the state of freedom of expression and of the press in her country. Her husband, Reinaldo Escobar, an independent journalist, will also be present at that General Assembly to receive the IAPA Award in the Opinion category.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, warned that “at this General Assembly we will be having intense discussion on how the most authoritarian governments of the Americas are increasingly restricting journalists, news media and expression in general.”
Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, said that within the framework of the meeting there will be presented special reports on press laws affecting several countries, among them Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela, on spying carried out by the United States government, and on the extreme violence that has resulted this year in the murder of more than 10 journalists in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay.
The General Assembly will also serve for the discussion of issues of great relevance for the press and public opinion, among them the future of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the U.S, immigration policies and how these affect Latin America, the impact of legalization of marijuana in the Western Hemisphere, and the effective use that the press makes of social networks.
For more information on the IAPA General Assembly go to the following link: http://www.sipiapa.org/asambleas/denver-2013en/.
