Cuba
Reporter sentenced to four yearsPosted Jul 20 2007
Cuban authorities arrested Sanchez Madan, a reporter for the Miami-based news Web site CubNet, on April 20. Madan, who was denied a lawyer during trial, received the maximum sentence of four years in prison for “social dangerousness,” reports the Committee to Protect Journalists. The reporter's family was banned from the court proceeding. Earlier this year the journalist covered a corruption scandal and social problems in his home of Matanza. His reports did not go unnoticed; he was detained twice before in 2006. Article 72 of the Cuban Penal Code states “any person shall be deemed dangerous if he or she has shown proclivity to commit crimes demonstrated by conduct that is in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality.” According to CPJ, there are 25 jailed journalists in Cuba.