No freedom of press in Cuba a dramatic report

March, 19 - 7:06 AM

No freedom of press in Cuba, a dramatic report

QUITO. - Humberto Casteló, vice-president of the Commission of Freedom
of Press in Cuba, presented a dramatic report that illustrates the
"total darkness" in which the freedom of press is found in his country,
where more than 25 journalists are jailed.

"Besides the State’s absolute control over mass media in Cuba during 46
years, the outlines of a bloody repression against independent
expressions, the harassment and the lack of medical attention of the
imprisoned journalists", are added daily, emphasized Casteló during an
SIP International Press Society (SIP) meeting Quito, Ecuador.

In addition, he said the government imposes "iron clad monitoring" to
prevent citizens access to alternative sources of information.

In the mid year meeting of the SIP, celebrated in Quito, Casteló said
when he was jailed, journalist Mario Enrique May, went to extremes like
inflicting wounds to his own face, abdomen and extremities with a blade
as a way to demand his liberation.

Casteló talked about the severity of imprisonment conditions that
journalists are under, emphasizing the mistreatment of the interns and
their families during visits.

According to Casteló, 18 of the jailed journalists suffer "serious
health problems", caused by diseases acquired during imprisonment and
three of them are in a hunger strike from the 4th of this month.

Casteló indicated that for the more than fifty journalists who "try to
maintain Cuba’s movement for independent journalism alive, the working
conditions are overwhelmingly adverse".

He said that the lack of material resources and the access to
information technologies are small limitations “in comparison to the
spiral of police intimidations, temporary incarcerations and the
harassment caused by crowds mobilized and instigated by security
government agents".

Casteló’s presentation monopolized the attention of the assisting
personalities present in Quito, in which he exhibited photographic
material showing the jailed journalists.

"The Cuban Government has undertaken an offensive patrolling program to
prevent the proliferation of clandestine television signals by satellite
", he said.

He also emphasized that "arrests and prohibitions to foreign journalists
and personalities have taken place when they tried to enter the island
to report on the Cuban reality”

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