9 March 1999
MANY JOURNALISTS ARRESTED IN CRACKDOWN
At least 15 journalists were arrested surrounding a sedition trial on 1 March in Cuba and two have gone missing, provoking an international outcry, report Reporters sans frontières (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Neither Jesús Díaz Loyola, a HavanaPress reporter in Havana, nor José Edel García Díaz, a reporter with "Centro Norte del País" based in Caibarién, have been seen since 25 February and their whereabouts are unknown. The 15 journalists were detained to prevent them from covering the trial on 1 March of political dissidents Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Félix Bonne, and René Gomez, known as the "Group of Four", who are charged with sedition. CPJ says at least another 11 reporters were put under house arrest during the trial, which ended around 22:00 that day. In addition, State Security agents ordered reporters to clear the area in front of the courthouse, preventing the international press from covering the trial.
Among the journalists arrested was Raúl Rivero, Director of the independent CubaPress, who was recently appointed to WAN's Press Freedom Committee, which oversees the press freedom activities of WAN. There is no word of his release yet. Other reporters from the independent CubaPress and HavanaPress news agencies were also arrested. RSF says that several human rights defenders were also arrested. Many of those detained were reportedly released shortly after the trial, including some of the journalists.
The crackdown comes shortly after a repressive law was passed in Cuba on 16 February that imposes sentences of up to 20 years in prison for the possession or distribution of "subversive" documents. The law also makes it a crime to contact foreign media or distribute information opposed to Cuba's "fundamental interests." In a letter to President Fidel Castro, WAN President Bengt Braun writes, "The passing of this law, the continuing detention of these journalists and the sporadic arrests of several others in the last month, constitute a sinister attack on the press and brazenly flout the American Convention on Human Rights, a convention signed by Cuba, which states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression."
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