Cuba remains one of the worse places to be a reporter on planet Earth

Cuba is ranked #169 out of 180 countries in the Reporter Without Borders 2015 World Press Freedom Index with a score of 70.21

 Reporters Without Borders offered the following analysis in their 2015 report

"Freedom of information is extremely limited in Cuba, which is ranked lower in the index than any other country in the Americas. The government tolerates no independent press. Internet access is restricted and tightly controlled. The authorities continue to cite the US embargo as the reason for the low Internet penetration but the activation of Cuba’s ALBA-1 fibre-optic cable with Venezuela proves that it has more to do with a political desire to control the Internet. In addition to the lack of media pluralism, outspoken journalists and bloggers are still subjected to threats, smears, arrest and arbitrary detention. Does the announcement by Cuba and the United States of an historic agreement to restore diplomatic relations offer a ray of hope for Cuban journalists?"

Cuba: Former prisoner of conscience & journalist arrested and pressured to leave his country

 "Independent journalist Bernardo Rogelio Arévalo Padrón just arrested, held at police headquarters of Aguada de Pasajeros." -  Iván Hernandez Carrillo over twitter on September 6, 2014

Former political prisoner and journalist arrested, pressured to leave Cuba

10 September 2014
Reporters Without Borders

 

Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, an independent journalist based in Cienfuegos, 250 km southeast of Havana, said police pressured him to leave Cuba when they arrested him on 6 September because of his reporting for the opposition newspaper El Cubano Libre, de Hoy.

Arévalo told Reporters Without Borders that the Cienfuegos police threatened him with a four-year jail sentence if he did not leave the island.

“I don't want to leave Cuba, I don't want to,” Arévalo said. “My decision is irrevocable. I would rather go to prison than leave the country. I want to die in Cuba.”

Arévalo spent six years as a political prisoner, from 1997 to 2003, after being convicted of insulting Fidel Castro and then Vice-President Carlos Lage. Between then and last weekend, he had only been detained once – for eight hours in February 2010. 

 

Bernardo Arévalo Padrón

“We condemn the pressure being placed on Arévalo,” said Camille Soulier, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Americas desk. “Cuba is reestablishing relations with the European Union and EU member countries but its treatment of independent journalists has not changed. Exile or prison, that's freedom of information in Cuba today.”

In its latest monthly report, the Havana-based Hablemos Press independent information centre said there were a total of 609 politically-motivated arrests in Cuba in August, bring the total to 6,805 since the start of the year.

One of the latest victims, independent journalist Miguel Guerra Pérez, was released on 1 September after being held for a week. Several Hablemos Press reporters have been the targets of threats. They include José Leonel Silva Guerrero, who was briefly detained and threatened with reprisals against his family if he did not stop working as the Hablemos Press correspondent in Holguín.

After the Hablemos Press monthly report was slammed by a recent “Mesa Redonda” programme on state television, the centre's director, Roberto de Jesús Guerra García, demanded the right to respond to the criticism on 1 September without holding out any hope of his request being granted.

Four journalists are currently detained in Cuba. One of them, Juliet Michelena Díaz, is still waiting for a court decision. Cuba is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index – the lowest position of any country in the Americas. 

 

https://www.ifex.org/cuba/2014/09/10/padron_arrested/

Genuine NGOs and the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba

"Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness." W.L. Watkins (1907)

United Nations Human Rights Council

UN Watch in their report "Massive Fraud: The Corruption of the 2013 UPR Review of Cuba" exposed how the Cuban government has corrupted and abused the Universal Periodic Review process. One of the regime's tactics was to flood the NGO process with front groups. In its summary, UN Watch described how:

Cuba used hundreds of front groups to hijack the United Nations compilation of NGO submissions and turn it into a propaganda sheet for the Castro Communist regime. While critiques of genuine NGOs do appear, they are overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of submissions by fraudulent “NGOs” that, if they do exist, are mere puppets of Cuba and its allies abroad. UN Watch examined 28 recent UPR country reviews. There were 9 NGO submissions on Turkmenistan, 12 on Romania, 23 on Germany, 32 on Russia, and, the highest, 48 on Canada. For Cuba, however, the number soars to an incredible 454. 

One way to counter the abuse and corruption of the process is to highlight the genuine NGOs that offered a genuine critique of the dictatorship in Cuba.  Respected international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Centrist Democrat International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters sans frontières submitted important reports as did independent groups from inside Cuba such as the Alianza Democrática Oriental, Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba, Coalición Central Opositora and the Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks. Outside of Cuba diaspora organizations such as the Cuban Democratic Directorate and the Coalition of Cuban-American Women submitted reports.

The Universal Periodic Review Process

Below is a complete listing of these groups with links to their reports stored by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:

Alianza Democrática Oriental; comunicación conjunta para el examen periódico universal; Cuba
 http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/ADO_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AlianzaDemocraticaOriental_S.pdf

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL SUBMISSION TO THE UN UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW 16TH SESSION OF THE UPR WORKING GROUP, APRIL-MAY 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AI_UPR_CUB_s16_2013_AmnestyInternational_E.pdf

ASOCIACIÓN JURÍDICA CUBANA Cuba Información para el Examen Periódico Universal de la ONU
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/AJC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_AsociacionJuridicaCubana_S.pdf

Contribution de Reporters sans frontières, organisation non gouvernementale dotée du statut consultatif spécial, à propos de la situation de la liberté de la presse à Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/RSF_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ReportersSansFronti%C3%A8res_F.pdf

Informe del Observatorio Cubano de Derechos Humanos para el Grupo de Trabajo de la Revisión Periódica Universal (UPR)http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/OCDH_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ObservatorioCubanoDeDerechosHumanos_S.pdf

Consejo de Relatores de Derechos Humanos de Cuba. (CRDHC). En coordinación con los Círculos Democráticos Municipalistas. (CDM)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS1_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission1_S.pdf

Coalición Central Opositora y Movimiento Femenino por los Derechos Civiles Rosa Parks Agresiones contra mujeres defensoras de derechos humanos en Cuba Revisión Periódica Universal de Cuba 2013
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS2_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission2_S.pdf

Contribución Conjunta del Centro de Información Legal “Cubalex” y la Asociación Cubana para el Desarrollo de la Educación Infantil
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/JS7_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Jointsubmission7_S.pdf

CUBA: SYSTEMATIC STATE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE CHILDREN OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS
Coalition of Cuban-American Women
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCAW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CoalitionOfCubanAmericanWomen_E.pdf

Informe del Comite Ciudadano Contra los Malos Tratos.
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCCMT_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ComiteCiudadanoContraLosMalosTrat_S.pdf

Presentación de la Comisión Cubana de Derechos Humanos y Reconciliación Nacional (CCDHRN)* para el Examen Periódico Universal (EPU)
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CCDHRN_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_Comisi%C3%B3nCubanaDeDerechosHumanosYRecoS.pdf

Comunicación Individual del Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL), ante el Examen Periódico Universal de Cuba.”
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CADAL_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentroParaLaperturaYElDesarrolloDe_S.pdf

Individual report from the Centrist Democrat International for the April-May 2013 Universal Periodic Review of the government of Cuba
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CDI_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_CentristDemocratInternational_S.pdf

Universal Periodic Review – 16th Session CSW – Stakeholder Submission CUBA
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/CSW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_ChristianSolidarityWorldwide_E.pdf

Extrajudicial Killings and Suspicious Deaths in Cuba 2009 - 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/DDC_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_DirectorioDemocr%C3%A1ticoCubano_E.pdf

Human Rights Watch UPR Submission Cuba October 2012
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session16/CU/HRW_UPR_CUB_S16_2013_HumanRightsWatch_E.pdf

Reporters Without Borders Names Raúl Castro a predator of press freedom

Raúl Castro: one of forty predators of press freedom

Raúl Castro - Cuba President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers

Fidel Castro passed the reins of power to his younger brother Raúl, the defence minister, five days after falling ill on 26 July 2006 and undergoing a major operation. Formally confirmed as President of the Council of State on 24 February 2008, Raúl has behaved little better than his brother as regards human rights, despite a few cautious hints of a possible opening. The so-called transition period saw continued harassment of independent journalists including police brutality, summonses and searches by State Security (the political police) and detention for short periods. Nineteen of the journalists arrested during the March 2003 “Black Spring” continue to serve jail terms ranging from 14 to 27 years in appalling conditions. A 20th journalist has been held without trial since 2005. Five others have been imprisoned since Raúl took over. With a total of 25 journalists detained, Cuba is one of the world’s biggest prisons for the media, just behind China and Iran.

http://en.rsf.org/spip.php?page=predateur&id_article=37206