Serious Denunciations Before the IACHR - Human Rights Situation of Journalists in Cuba. The Santiesteban Case

Serious Denunciations Before the IACHR: Human Rights Situation of
Journalists in Cuba. The Santiesteban Case
Posted on April 1, 2014

The lawyer, Veizant Boloy, and the journalists Roberto de Jesús Guerra
and Julio Aliaga have presented before the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights denunciations about the permanent violations of human
rights of the independent journalists, and explained how the persecution
of information professionals operates. They have shown the Commission
the video of the detention of Angel Santiesteban on November 8, 2012.

Cuban journalists reported before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights that they continue being persecuted in Cuba.

March 25, 2014

Washington, March 25 (EFE). Two Cuban journalists and a Cuban lawyer
reported today before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) that independent reporters "continue suffering persecution" in Cuba.

They explained in a hearing on the subject about the situation of
freedom of expression and the rights of journalists on the island,
organized by the IACHR, an autonomous entity of the Organization of
American States (OEA), at which no representative of Raúl Castro's
government turned up.

"The repression continues against the journalists, the opposition and
citizens who wish to express themselves freely," said the journalist
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, of the agency Hablemos Press, who
described himself to the IACHR as an ex-political prisoner.

Guerra Pérez testified that in March, four journalists were detained
while they were performing their work on the island, and he added that
in 2013 the workers in his agency were arrested more than 70 times and
that they had their material confiscated on repeated occasions.

The lawyer Veizant Boloy González, from the center of legal information,
Cubalex, explained that Cuban journalists are submitted to censorship,
incarceration, surveillance and requisition of material.

"The authorities continue persecuting independent journalists," affirmed
Boloy.

"Although the Cuban state projects an image of economic and political
opening, it doesn't take weighty measures to promote freedom of
expression. The medium of diffusion of information continues being in
the power of the State. The citizens continue without participating in
the political life of the country, and the government doesn't take this
into account," added Boloy.

Another journalist, Julio Aliaga, told how he had been detained on
several occasions, and he pointed out that in Cuba the provinces are
"dark zones" as far as journalistic coverage is concerned, owing to the
fact that the international media is centered in Havana.

Aliago requested of the Castro regime that they develop a law that
establishes freedom of expression and abolishes the crimes in the penal
code that affect this right, and the law known as the "gag" law, as well
as modify the law of association.

Furthermore, the journalist appealed to the IACHR that it develop a
report on the situation of freedom of expression in Cuba and that it
invite the government to participate in the inter-American system of
human rights.

The constituents of the IACHR regretted the absence of representatives
of the Cuban executive and recalled that the Commission always invites
the State and notifies it of all the denunciations.

Participants: Hablemos Press Center of Information (CIPRESS)/CUBALEX

State of Cuba

Please sign the petition to have Angel Santiesteban declared a prisoner
of conscience by Amnesty International.
https://secure.avaaz.org/es/petition/Para_que_Amnistia_Internacional_declare_prisionero_de_conciencia_al_disidente_cubano_Angel_Santiesteban/?fbss

Translated by Regina Anavy

27 March 2014

Source: Serious Denunciations Before the IACHR: Human Rights Situation
of Journalists in Cuba. The Santiesteban Case | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/serious-denunciations-before-the-iachr-human-rights-situation-of-journalists-in-cuba-the-santiesteban-case/