Cuba
Journalist Released and Blogs UnblockedPosted Feb 16 2011
Hector Maseda embraces his wife, Laura Pollon, at his home in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 12. Maseda was released from prison by Cuban authorities after negotiations between the Catholic Church and the government. (AP Photo: Franklin Reyes)
Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez was released on parole by Cuban authorities after his arrest in 2003 during the “Black Spring,” a crackdown by the Cuban government to find any dissidents.
Reporters Without Borders hopes that this will be a starting point for Cuban authorities to open up the country to press freedom.
Maseda Gutiérrez was released without having to go into exile, yet the sentences that he was charged under as acting against “the territorial integrity of the state” have not been dropped, Reporters Without Borders said. A journalist and former winner of the International Press Freedom Award, Maseda Gutiérrez was originally sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In an interview with DiarioVasco, Maseda Gutiérrez said “I was obliged to leave prison against my will. I never accepted how they released me, under special 'extrajudicial license.' I never accepted that.”
Another instance of the perhaps burgeoning openness of Cuban authorities to press freedom is the unblocking of some 40 blogs that had been criticizing the government.
In a report by the Miami Herald, popular blogger Yoani Sanchez told the Herald in a telephone interview, “We know that access to Voces [a web portal] was unblocked about one week ago. We confirmed it Friday. What we don’t know is why.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists wrote a letter calling for Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to release the journalists that had been captured in the 2003 “Black Spring” raid.