IAPA protests Cuba’s suspension of correspondents’ credentials

MIAMI, Florida (February 23, 2007)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today strongly condemned the suspension of the work visas of three foreign correspondents in Cuba, calling the government action an abusive reprisal and yet another demonstration of the arbitrary way the country deals with free speech and press freedom.

Correspondents Gary Marx of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Steppens Gibbs of the BBC, London, and César González-Calero of El Universal, Mexico City, Mexico were notified of the decision by Cuba’s official foreign press agency, the International Press Center (CPI), that their press visas would not be renewed, so when they expired in late February they would have to stop covering the news in Cuba.

González-Calero, who has been living in Cuba since 2003, reported to his newspaper that CPI Director José Luis Ponce had him that his “way of focusing on what is happening in Cuba is not in the best interests of the Cuban government,” but the official failed to give any examples to support the visa suspension.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, declared, “the actions of the Cuban government totally ignore international conventions and treaties concerning freedom of expression. The attempts to maintain censorship of news about Cuba produce an opposite effect before the international community that is watching what is going on there with interest. We urge the Cuban government to carefully consider the terrible consequences of its arbitrary and exclusionary policy.”

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, daily newspaper Prensa Libre, reiterated the IAPA’s request to the Cuban officials that they remove all obstacles to news coverage and allow unrestricted access by foreign correspondents, and to free 26 Cuban journalists in prison for exercising their right to freedom of the press.

In October last year the CPI issued new regulations increasing the restrictions on foreign correspondents. For example, Article 46 of the Regulations provides that “The CPI may temporarily suspend or permanently withdraw temporary or permanent accreditation when the person holding it carries out actions that are inappropriate or do not have anything to do with his or her role and kind of work, and when it is considered that he or she has failed to observe journalistic ethics and/or fails to show objectivity in his or her reports.”

Marroquín cited the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, whose Principle 5 states, “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press.”