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World Report - Cuba

All of the journalists imprisoned during the "black spring" of March 2003 have been released between July 2010 and March 2011, but most of them were forced into exile. The regime continues moreover to persecute anyone who dares to supply news and information that escapes its control.

All of the journalists jailed since the "black spring" left prison between July 2010 and March 2011 thanks to mediation on the part of the Spanish government and Cuba's Catholic Church. Among them was Reporters Without Borders' correspondent Ricardo González Alfonso, founder of the magazine De Cuba. Most of them, along with other dissidents who were jailed during the same period, obtained their freedom at the price of going into exile in Spain. There have been no journalists in prison in Cuba since 8 April 2011.

After Raúl Castro officially took over as president in February 2008, the government made cautious gestures towards the international community. Cuba on 27 February 2008, signed up – but without ratifying them – to two UN conventions, one on economic, social and cultural rights and the other on civil and political rights. Cubans saw the ban lifted on going into luxury hotels to make use of faster Internet connections on 24 February of the same year. This reform did not last and bloggers have again been harassed and controls over the Internet slapped on again since then. Further reforms allowed citizens to obtain computer software for private use and legalised mobile phones.

Cuba is the only country in the Americas not to allow any independent press to operate outside the straitjacket of the state. The official media (one television channel, one radio station and two dailies – Granma and Juventud Rebelde – and their local versions) serve first and foremost to transmit propaganda for the regime with just a few Catholic magazines being tolerated. Dissident journalists continue to work secretly and are forced to publish abroad, particularly on websites run by the Cuban diaspora in Miami, what they are unable to share with their fellow citizens within the country. Internet use is still under tight control, even though connection problems are also the result of restrictions that are part of the US embargo which has been in force since 1962.

Updated in April 2011

Topics: Freedom of information, Freedom of expression,