Five dissident journalists freed after short detention

Cuba - Five dissident journalists freed after short detention
Source: Reporters Without Borders - Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:35 AM
Author: Reporters Without Borders

Mario Echevarría Driggs, David Águila Montero and William Cacer Díaz,
arrested in Havana last week, were freed on 14 October 2013.

Two correspondents for the Hablemos Press news center, Denis Noa
Martinez and Pablo Morales Marchán, were arrested last Sunday. They were
freed at the same time.

"Reporters Without Borders is relieved that all five journalists have
been released. Hopefully, news providers will be able to continue their
work without fear of repression or incarceration. We demand that
authorities punish zealous State security and police agents
accordingly," said the organization.

14/10/13 - Three dissident journalists arrested in space of 24 hours

Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of three
dissident journalists who were arrested within the space of 24 hours at
the end of last week in Havana.

Mario Echevarría Driggs, a reporter for the Misceláneas de Cuba website,
was arrested while covering a demonstration near the National Capitol on
10 October. David Águila Montero, head of the Independent Journalists'
Social Agency (ASPI), was arrested as he left his home the next morning.

William Cacer Díaz, a reporter for the Hablemos Press news centre, was
arrested by State Security (the political police) a few hours later as
he was going to Hablemos Press headquarters.

"These targeted acts of repression are the unfortunate continuation of
Cuba's rejection of the UN Human Rights Council's recommendations on
freedom of expression in Geneva on 20 September," Reporters Without
Borders said.

"This attitude is all the more incomprehensible in the light of Cuban
civil society's growing debate about information, a debate in which the
official media have now joined. You cannot hope to debate and reform
everything while continuing to resort to censorship, brutality and
arbitrary measures. The detained journalists and netizens must be freed
at once."

Reporters Without Borders added: "As current holder of the rotating
presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
(CELAC), Cuba has all the more reason for honouring its obligations on
civil liberties and human rights, as President Raúl Castro himself
promised. Ratification of the UN covenants on civil and political rights
can wait no longer."

Two other news providers are currently detained in Cuba: the writer and
blogger Angel Santiesteban-Prats, who has been held since 28 February,
and José Antonio Torres, a journalist with the Communist Party daily
Granma, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in July 2011 on
unexplained charges of "spying."

The three latest arrests follow an increase in repressive measures in
recent weeks.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the "acto de repudio" (act of public
vilification) organized outside dissident journalist Juan Carlos
González Leiva's home on 12 October, a week after the police summoned
the blogger and activist Isbel Díaz Torres after a debate on the future
of the Labour Code that was organized by the Communist Party and Workers
Central.

Source: "Cuba - Five dissident journalists freed after short detention"
- http://www.trust.org/item/20131015154437-ahm5t/