Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
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- Number of journalists behind bars reaches global high
- Killers of journalists still get away with murder
Reporter Without Borders
Cuba September 8, 2006
H.E. Fidel Castro Ruz
President
Office of the President
Consejo de Estado
Plaza de la Revolución
Ciudad de la Habana
Republic of Cuba
Fax: (011.537) 81-22-71
Your Excellency:
The Overseas Press Club of America is gratified to hear that our colleague, Guillermo Farinas, has ended the hunger strike he began in January. But it should give pause to everyone in your government that an independent journalist should be willing to suffer so much to defend the freedom of the press.
In order to achieve unrestricted access to the Internet, which is taken for granted in most parts of the world, Farinas was willing to undergo an ordeal that brought him close to death. Despite being fed intravenously in hospital, he was suffering terribly from constant migraines, convulsions, fevers, a swollen abdomen and a heart disorder.
We wish Farinas a thorough recovery, but with little hope that he will win his demand for access to the Internet, or that the plight of many other journalists in Cuba will improve. Cuba still holds in jail 20 journalists, most of them imprisoned for more than three years. They were sentenced to long terms in jail in sham trials that deprived them of access to a serious defense. They have been held under abominable conditions.
When, finally, is the Cuban government going to stop persecuting its citizens for defending their rights as human beings? When will Cuba become a part of civilization again?
Respectfully yours,
Jeremy Main
Kevin McDermott
Freedom of the Press Committee
c c:
Raul Castro
c/o Cuban Interests Section
Embassy of Switzerland
2630 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington , DC 20009
Fax: (202) 986-7283
Ambassador Bruno Rodríguez
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba
to the United Nations
315 Lexington Avenue
New York , NY 10016
Fax: (212) 689-9073
Mr. Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera
Cuban Interests Section
Embassy of Switzerland
2630 Sixteenth Street, NW
Washington , DC 20009
Fax: (202) 986-7283
Mr. James C. Cason
U.S. Interests Section
Embassy of Switzerland
Calzada between L and M Streets
Vedado Seccion
Havana
Cuba
Fax: (011.537) 33-37-00
Hon. Louise Arbour
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Fax: (011.41.22) 917-9022