Document - Cuba: Journalist threatened and attacked: Roberto de Jesús Guerra
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| Amnesty issues Urgent Action for Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, |
URGENT ACTION
journalist threatened and attacked
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, director of the independent news
agency Hablemos Press has been receiving threatening telephone calls and
was assaulted on the streets of Havana, the capital. He believes these
are attempts by the Cuban authorities to dissuade him from continuing
his activities as a journalist.
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez, founder and director of the
independent news agency Hablemos Press (Let’s Talk Press) has been
repeatedly receiving threatening telephone calls since 6 June. Different
male voices have called his mobile phone and the landline at his home,
which also doubles as the office of Hablemos Press, and have threatened
that Roberto will be killed.
Just after 11am on 11 June Roberto de Jesús
Guerra Pérez was walking in the municipality of Plaza de la Revolución
in central Havana on his way to use internet facilities at the Czech
Embassy. He was attacked without warning by an unknown individual who
started to punch and kick him, leaving him with a broken nose and
bruises all over his body. As he was being beaten four men on two
motorcycles which are typically used by the Cuban Department of State
Security pulled up beside him. Roberto stated that one of the men said
“ok, that’s enough” (ya, ya, no le des más) before they drove
off. Roberto recognized one of the four men as someone who had
participated in repressing demonstrations by dissidents. Roberto and his
wife filed a complaint against the attack at the police station in the
Cerro municipality of Havana. Roberto was called back to the police
station later that night where he identified his attacker from
photographs he was shown.
At around 6pm on 17 June the same man who
attacked Roberto shouted threats outside his house, including that he
would kill Roberto and set fire to his house. Roberto’s wife returned to
the same police station to file another complaint but they refused to
take it and told her that they had no grounds for complaint (“la denuncia no procedía”).
Please write immediately in Spanish or your own language:
Calling on the Cuban authorities to immediately investigate the assault on 11 June against Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez as well as telephone threats against him and to bring those found responsible to justice;
Calling on the authorities to ensure that citizens who seek to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of expression, assembly and association are able to so without harassment or intimidation
PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 1 AUGUST 2014 TO:
Head of State and Government
Raúl Castro Ruz
Presidente de la República de Cuba
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +41 22 758 9431 (Cuba office in Geneva); +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: cuba@un.int
Salutation: Your Excellency
Attorney General
Dr. Darío Delgado Cura
Fiscal General de la República,
Fiscalía General de la República,
Amistad 552, e/Monte y Estrella,
Centro Habana,
La Habana, Cuba
Salutation: Dear Attorney General
And copies to:
Interior Minister
General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra
Ministro del Interior y Prisiones
Ministerio del Interior,
Plaza de la Revolución,
La Habana, Cuba
Fax: +1 212 779 1697 (via Cuban Mission to UN)
Email: correominint@mn.mn.co.cu
Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.
URGENT ACTION
journalist threatened and attackedAdditional Information
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez
has faced constant harassment from the authorities. He has been arrested
on several occasions and threatened with prison sentences if he
continues his activities as a journalist. On 6 April 2014 Roberto de
Jesús Guerra was detained for six hours by police after he arrived at
Havana airport following a trip abroad. Material he was carrying was
confiscated, including documents from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights in Washington where he had attended an audience on 25 March
in relation to freedom of expression in Cuba. On 11 September 2012
Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez was forced into a car and reportedly
beaten as he was driven to a police station. Before being released, he
was told that he had become the “number one dissident journalist” and
would be imprisoned if he continued his activities.
The news agency Hablemos Press
(Let’s Talk Press) is an unofficial Cuban news agency founded in
February 2009 by independent journalists and human rights activists,
“for the purpose of gathering and disseminating news within the country
and for the rest of the world” according to their website. Hablemos
Press also produces monthly reports on the arbitrary detention of
independent journalists, human rights defenders and political activists.
Restrictions on the Cuban
media are stringent and pervasive and clearly stop those in the country
from enjoying their right to freedom of opinion and expression,
including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers. The state maintains a
total monopoly on television, radio, the press, internet service
providers, and other electronic means of communication.
Article 53 of the Cuban
Constitution recognizes freedom of the press but expressly prohibits
private ownership of the mass media: “Citizens have freedom of speech
and of the press in keeping with the objectives of socialist society.
Material conditions for the exercise of that right are provided by the
fact that the press, radio, television, cinema, and other mass media are
state or social property and can never be private property. This
assures their use at exclusive service of the working people and in the
interests of society. The law regulates the exercise of those freedoms”.
Although there is no
censorship law that explicitly regulates the functioning of the press or
establishes what is published, journalists must join the Cuban
Journalists Association (Unión de Periodistas Cubanos, UPEC) in order to
practice journalism in the state-owned media. UPEC is self-governing;
however, in its statutes it recognizes the Cuban Communist Party as “the
highest leading force of society and of the state” and agrees to abide
by Article 53 of the Constitution (see above). Compulsory membership of a
professional association for the practice of journalism is an unlawful
restriction on freedom of expression and a violation of the right to
freedom of association. Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) states that, “no one may be compelled to belong to an
association”. In the particular case of UPEC, whose members are
employees of the government of Cuba, compulsory membership is a means of
exerting political control in the field of communications. Only
journalists expressing views in line with official government policies
are accredited by UPEC; independent journalists are barred from joining.
Name: Roberto de Jesús Guerra
Gender m/f: m
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR25/001/2014/en/365f332d-b96b-42c7-9d4a-8ba1f490ea19/amr250012014en.html
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