In Cuba, one reporter is freed and 24 others are still jailed

In Cuba, one reporter is freed and 24 others are still jailed

New York, August 9, 2006—Independent journalist Albert Santiago Du
Bouchet Hernández was released on Saturday after a year in prison on a
spurious charge of "disrespecting" a local police chief. The Committee
to Protect Journalists today called on Cuban authorities to free the
other 24 journalists imprisoned throughout the island.

Du Bouchet was released on Saturday night after completing his
sentence, his wife, Bárbara Pérez, told CPJ today. Pérez said that her
husband was well and, according to international reports, the journalist
said he was ready to resume his work.

Du Bouchet was detained on August 6, 2005, while on a reporting
trip to the town of Artemisa, 38 miles (60 kilometers) from Havana. Du
Bouchet was summarily tried on a charge of "disrespecting" the local
chief of police and resisting arrest, and he was sentenced to one year
in prison. His family learned of the conviction only after he smuggled a
note out of prison.

Du Bouchet did not have access to a lawyer before or during the
trial. His family has said the charges were fabricated and that his
trial was "a sham." Du Bouchet had drawn the ire of authorities a few
months earlier, when he covered the congress of the Assembly to Promote
Civil Society. The two-day gathering, unprecedented in Cuba, brought
together 200 opposition activists and guests in May 2005 to discuss ways
to create democracy in Cuba.

"We're relieved that our colleague Albert Santiago Du Bouchet
Hernández is free and well, but his incarceration was a terrible
injustice," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "Today, 24 other
independent Cuban journalists are behind bars unjustly for expressing
their views. We demand Cuban authorities erase this blot and release all
of the imprisoned journalists immediately."

http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/cuba09aug06na.html