Cuba: Journalists live on the line

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Cuba: Journalists live on the line

Cuban independent journalists risk their lives for a short piece of
critical reporting, and as Fidel Castro's illness worsens, they engage
deeper in the underground fight.
The Miami New Times told the story of Carlos Rios Otero, one of the
island's rare independent journalists, scribbling notes under
candlelight and the backside of

After the government ostracized him and his family for his less
Communist beliefs, Carlos began his underground reporting in the 1990s.

Cuban media have been state-run for 48 years, so any published articles
must be transmitted secretly and keep a low profile.

He tries to participate in Miami radio stations through phone
dispatches, or calls in to Miami to voice his story to another reporter,
and his stories are then published on www.nuevaprensa.org, a
Miami-website run by Cuban exiles.

"He's risking his life every time he gives us information," said Nancy
Perez Crespo, manager of Nueva Prensa Cubana in Miami.

He risks his life for a few lines critical of living conditions, and
barely has enough money to keep a steady diet. Each phone dispatch to
Miami costs nearly $3 per minute.

A recent edict by the Cuban government for foreign journalists stated
reporter visas could be revoked "when [the reporter] carries out
improper actions or actions not within his profile and work content;
also when he is considered to have violated journalistic ethics and/or
he is not guided by objectivity in his reports.''

Press freedom in Cuba is still a reporter's whimsical dream. Even more
so for independent Cuban journalists, pressured by even harsher
policies, risking their lives for just a few words towards freedom.

http://www.editorsweblog.org/print_newspapers/2007/01/cuba_journalists_live_on_the_line.php