Tribune reporter is ousted in Cuba crackdown
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
Two months after announcing new controls on the foreign press in Cuba,
the island's government has kicked out a reporter for The Chicago
Tribune and given him 90 days to leave the island, the paper reported today.
Veteran journalist Gary Marx has reported from the paper's Havana bureau
since 2002. The Tribune is one of a handful of U.S.-based news
organizations with permission to work in Cuba.
''They said I've been here long enough, and they felt my work was
negative,'' The Tribune quoted Marx as saying. ``They did not cite any
examples.''
In the past month, Marx filed reports about young people's waning
interest in communism, a debate among intellectuals who feared a
government crackdown and a Catholic church activist. He also wrote about
a string of Cuban doctors who defected.
In December, the Cuban government issued an 11-page document that
updated regulations on the foreign correspondents based in Havana.
The document said the International Press Center in Havana may
temporarily suspend or withdraw a reporter's accreditation ``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.''
A flood of foreign reporters are expected to converge upon Cuba upon the
death of Fidel Castro, who ceded power to his brother in July. When
Castro first announced his illness, several reporters who lacked Cuban
journalists' visas were turned back at the airport.
The Miami Herald has historically been denied both journalists' visas
for reporting visits and Cuban permission to set up a bureau in Havana.
''We're very disappointed and concerned by the news that the Cuban
government has decided to not renew our correspondent's credentials and
has asked him and his family to leave the island,'' George de Lama,
Chicago Tribune managing editor for news, told his paper.
``Gary Marx is an accomplished, veteran journalist who has consistently
given our readers accurate, incisive and insightful coverage from Cuba,
working under sometimes difficult conditions.''
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, owned by the Tribune Co., also has a
reporter on the island.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/email/news/breaking_news/16759244.htm
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