Reporters without Borders slanders Cuba

["Eli Stephens" <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I hadn't posted anything up to now, but since I've been carrying on a
polemic over at the KOS website (http://www.dailykos.com) on the subject, I
thought I'd share this with the list. In case you haven't seen it, Reporters
without Borders issued a "ranking" on "press freedom" in countries around
the world. Quantifying such a subject and actually ranking countries from 1
to 166 is a preposterous idea to begin with (rather than, say, grouping
countries into general categories like "very good", "good", etc.). But in
any case, this report seems directed right at Cuba above all, starting with
the headline on their site: "Cuba second from last, just ahead of North
Korea," moving on to the opening paragraph which includes this: "Second from
last in the ranking, Cuba is today the world's biggest prison for
journalists," and then continuing on to  the third paragraph which reads:
"Cuba is in 165th position, second from last. Twenty-six independent
journalists were arrested in the spring of 2003 and sentenced to prison
terms ranging from 14 to 27 years, making Cuba the world's biggest prison
for journalists. They were accused of writing articles for publication
abroad that played into the hands of "imperialist interests.""

Of course this is pure slander, the so-called "indendent journalists" were
charged with receiving clandestine funds from the U.S. government and U.S.
government-sponsored agencies and, with collaborating with U.S. officials
for the purpose of undermining the sovereignty of the Cuban state, not with
"writing articles for publication that played into the hands of 'imperialist
interests'."

The complete report is here: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=8247

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