Cuba
Reporter arrested after speaking outPosted Feb 25 2007
Cuban journalist Ramon Velázquez Toranso, reporter for the independent newspaper Libertad, was arrested along with his wife and daughter on January 23 after launching a march to press for respect of basic freedoms, reports Reporters Without Borders. The peaceful protest called March for Unity was planned to launch in Las Tunas and Havana. Toranso’s family, who were released shortly after their detainment, are not allowed to visit the journalist until he stops his hunger strike that has continued since January 30. Reporters Without Borders says Velazquez has been sentenced to three years of “surveillance” by the La Tunas provincial court as a “pre-criminal danger to society.” In the six months Raul Castro has taken over as acting president, there have been about 40 journalists detained, attacked or threatened.
On the Web: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20914a