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IAPA calls for unrestricted news access in Cuba, release of 25 jailed journalists
MIAMI, Florida (August 7, 2006)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA)
today called on the Cuban government to give unrestricted access to the country
to foreign reporters and repeated its request for the release of 25 independent
journalists imprisoned there since 2003.
The announcement last week of President Fidel Castro’s health crisis
led international news organizations to seek urgent entry for their reporters
to Cuba, where an entry visa is required and normally takes several weeks to
obtain.
It was learned that Cuban officials have denied entry to at least four journalists
for failing to obtain such a visa and that permission to enter the country was
cancelled for four others from Europe despite their having complied with the
visa requirements.
“Regrettably, we are not surprised at the news blackout imposed by authorities
who are incapable of making an exception and allowing reporters to cover the
breaking news as occurs in other places, even at a time when their country is
under scrutiny by the rest of the world, wanting to know first-hand what is
going on there,” said Gonzalo Marroquín, chairman of the IAPA’s
Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa
Libre, once again repeated an IAPA request for the release of 25 independent
journalists, most of them in poor health, serving lengthy terms in Cuban prisons.
“We hold the Cuban government responsible for the personal well-being
of the imprisoned journalists and of those who continue working outside government
control,” Marroquín said.
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