After UE lifts sanctions, Cuba asked to show magnanimity towards
Reporters Without Borders correspondent
Reporters Without Borders appeals to Raúl Castro's government for a show
of magnanimity towards the organisation's correspondent, Ricardo
González Alfonso, and other imprisoned journalists in return for the
European Union's decision on 23 June to lift the political sanctions it
had imposed Cuba. The Cuban government had made this a condition for
restoring normal relations with the EU.
"There have been a few advances in freedom of expression and information
since Raúl Castro took over as Council of State president on 24
February, with Cuban being given the right to buy their own computer
equipment or enter tourist hotels that have better Internet
connections," Reporters Without Borders said. "The dialogue begun by the
Spanish government undoubtedly contributed to this, just as it led to
the release in February of independent journalist Alejandro González
Raga and two other detainees from the 2003 'Black Spring'."
The press freedom organisation added: "A similar gesture is now needed
with the 23 other journalists who are still imprisoned, 19 of whom have
been held since the March 2003 crackdown. The EU sanctions imposed after
the crackdown, which were suspended in 2005, have now been definitively
lifted. The Cuba government got its way, so there is no longer any
excuse for sidestepping the call for an improvement in human rights and
free expression."
As well as being the Reporters Without Borders Cuba correspondent,
González is the founder of the Manuel Márquez Sterling journalists'
association and the independent magazine De Cuba. He was arrested on 18
March 2003 and was given a 20-year prison sentence on the absurd charge
of being a "mercenary" in the pay of the United States. He has been held
in Havana's Combinado del Este prison since the end of 2004.
Now aged 58, he suffers from high blood pressure and cervical arthritis,
and has problems with his circulation and digestion. After a long spell
in the prison hospital and a total of four operations in 2006 and 2007,
he was returned to his cell on 27 January of this year, although he is
still in very poor health.
His wife, Alida Viso Bello, told Reporters Without Borders on 23 June
that for the past month he has not been getting the Captopril medicine
that heart doctors prescribed for his high blood pressure, and that he
is having a lot of arthritis attacks because he does not have an
appropriate chair in his cell. Viso never got a reply to the request she
submitted last February for him to be released on health grounds.
With a total of 23 journalists detained, Cuba continues to be the
world's biggest prison for the media after China. It is the western
hemisphere's only country that not does permit any form of media that is
not under direct government control.
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