19 November 2003
CUBA/TUNISIA: JAILED JOURNALISTS FREED
Some good news flowed out of Cuba and Tunisia this past week, with the release of jailed Cuban journalist Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Tunisian Internet dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui, notes
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
Arévalo Padrón was released on 13 November after serving a six-year sentence for "insulting" top government officials, including Cuban President Fidel Castro. He had called Castro a "liar" on Radio Marti, a United States government-funded station that broadcasts from Miami, Florida, and accused him of failing to keep promises about democratisation, RSF reports.
The journalist reportedly plans to resume reporting with the José Maceo independent news agency. Private news outlets are banned under the Cuban constitution.
In Tunisia, Yahyaoui was given a conditional release for serving half of his 36-month jail sentence. In June 2002, he was sentenced to two years in prison for "spreading false news."
Yahyaoui's website "TUNeZINE" - launched in 2001 - often featured articles and cartoons criticising Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, says RSF. They included an open letter to the president written by Yahyaoui's uncle, Judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui, who denounced the country's court system.
Last June, RSF honoured Yahyaoui with its inaugural Reporters Without Borders-Globenet Cyber Freedom Prize for his efforts to defend Internet free expression.
Visit these sites for more information:
- IFEX: http://www.ifex.org
- Cuba: http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2003/cubacrackdown/index.html
- The Internet in Tunisia: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=7271
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