Jailed Cuban journalist wins prize
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com
A Cuban journalist who has been behind bars for five years and has
another 15 years left on his sentence was awarded Reporters Without
Borders' Journalist of the Year award.
Ricardo González Alfonso, 58, was arrested in 2003 when the Cuban
government conducted a nationwide sweep against dissent. He was one of
26 reporters imprisoned.
A former correspondent for the Paris-based press advocacy group
Reporters Without Borders, he was accused of being in the pay of the
United States and ``undermining Cuba's independence and territorial
integrity.''
González is a former employee of the state television agency who was in
charge of children's broadcasting. He started working for the opposition
Cuba Press in 1995, and became a correspondent for Reporters Without
Borders in 1998.
He tried to train independent journalists, who often lack basic
reporting skills.
''We chose Ricardo because he really tried to improve independent
journalism on the island with the creation in 2001 of the Manuel Márquez
Sterling association, a kind of journalism school he created,'' said
Reporters Without Borders' Americas desk director Benoit Hervieu.
``After that, he published a review called De Cuba, but unfortunately
there were only three editions of the review.''
It was shut down by the government.
González is currently at the Combinado del Este prison in Havana, where
he is reported to be in poor health.
''He remains a symbol of the triumph of the independent journalist on
the island,'' Hervieu said.
González's prize, awarded Thursday in Paris, was picked up by Alejandro
González Raga, a Cuban journalist who was released from prison in
February and exiled to Spain.
With 23 journalists in prison, Cuba is second only to China in the
number of jailed members of the press. China has locked up 28.
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