RE: [Marxism] Cuban "journalists" get US money

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have posted extensive stuff on this man to CubaNews.


Walter

-----Original Message-----
From: marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:marxism-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ralph Johansen
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 12:39 PM
To: Ralph Johansen
Subject: [Marxism] Cuban "journalists" get US money

[Larry Birns, director of the Washington, DC-based Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, blames the arrests on James Cason, who headed up the U.S. interests
section in Havana from September 2002 to 2005. Birns told OneWorld Cason
traveled across Cuba handing out short-wave radios, mimeograph machines, and
money to human rights activists and journalists.
"These people were arrested and jailed not for expressing their opinion but
for taking money from the United States government, a government that has
repeatedly tried to assassinate Castro," he said.]

This otherwise typical anti Cuban propaganda contains a more realistic
"other side"(boldface) than we are accustomed to in the media

Cuban Journalist Near Death Protesting Internet Restrictions

Aaron Glantz, OneWorld US Jun 10, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 (OneWorld) - The director of an independent Cuban
news agency is in critical condition after more than four months on hunger
strike.

Guillermo Farinas, who has refused food since the government took away his
Internet connection, was still unconscious five days after emergency surgery
to remove fluid from his left lung, according to the New York-based media
watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The head of an independent news agency called Cubanacan Press, Guillermo
Farinas went on hunger strike January 31. He has been in the hospital for
much of the time since then, receiving fluids and vitamins intravenously.

"We are shocked and appalled that Guillermo Farinas has become critically
ill protesting the government's policy of depriving Cubans of access to the
Internet, something which should be theirs by right," CPJ Executive Director
Ann Cooper said in a statement.

According to Farinas' mother who is a nurse, the journalist has suffered
kidney failure twice since the beginning of the hunger strike and
experienced a pneumothorax--a collection of air in the pleural cavity
surrounding the lungs. He also developed a blood clot after bleeding into
the pleural cavity, requiring him to undergo a minor surgery.

"I am ready to die," Mr. Farinas told another media watchdog group,
Reporters Without Borders, in February. "Fidel knows my position," he said,
referring to his demand that the Castro government end its ban on
independent journalism and allow the Cuban public unrestricted use of the
Internet.

Officials at the Cuban Mission to the  United Nations in New York and the
Cuban interests section of the Swiss Embassy in Washington (Cuba has no
formal diplomatic relations with the United States) could not be reached for
comment.

According to CPJ, Cuba has jailed 25 journalists, more than any other
country except China. Many of them were picked up in a series of raids in
March 2003, while world attention was focused on the invasion of Iraq. The
Cuban government arrested at least 75 dissidents in the sweeps, including 29
journalists who were given sentences from between
14 and 27 years.

Havana claims the dissidents arrested were American spies, carrying out a
policy of illegal intervention in Cuba officials say has been in effect
throughout  Fidel Castro's 47-year rule.

Larry Birns, director of the Washington, DC-based Council on Hemispheric
Affairs, blames the arrests on James Cason, who headed up the U.S.
interests section in Havana from September 2002 to 2005. Birns told OneWorld
Cason traveled across Cuba handing out short-wave radios, mimeograph
machines, and money to human rights activists and journalists.

"These people were arrested and jailed not for expressing their opinion but
for taking money from the United States government, a government that has
repeatedly tried to assassinate Castro," he said.

In any case, Birns said, the journalists arrested aren't reporters in the
way most Americans understand the term because the Cuban government does not
permit an independent press.

"Some of these people who are self-designated journalists are not
journalists," he said. "That's because there haven't been many opportunities
for people to become journalists. You could write for Granma (the government
newspaper) and be pro-government, but there's no such thing as an
anti-government newspaper, radio station, or television station in Cuba."

Those interested in distributing reports free of government censorship
resort to distributing pieces of paper to their neighbors, posting notices
on telephone polls, and sending out e-mails to interested citizens.

CPJ says those methods were building toward a freer press when the Castro
government cracked down in March 2003.

CPJ's Americas program coordinator, Carlos Lauria, added there is no proof
that any of the dissidents arrested took money from the U.S.
government.

"Two weeks after the detentions of the dissidents and journalists, they were
tried summarily without any access to lawyers. The trial lasted just one
day, they were behind closed doors and the Cuban government never provided
any proof [of their alleged offenses]," Lauria said.

"They are saying that these people are spies, but this is ridiculous,"
he added. "They were jailed solely for doing their job as a journalist.
This violates the most basic norms of international law, which gives
everyone in the world the right to seek, receive, and impart information
through the media."

CPJ is also alarmed by a report about the health of one of the jailed
journalists, Jose Luis Garcia Paneque. The organization says his condition
has worsened since his transfer in November from Havana's Combinado del Este
prison to Las Mangas prison in Granma province.
According to CPJ, he is suffering from severe intestinal problems and
internal bleeding.

His wife told the rights group he is not receiving adequate medical care in
the prison infirmary, and has been repeatedly mistreated by common
criminals.

Garcia Paneque, director of the independent news agency Libertad, was
sentenced in March 2003 to 24 years in prison. His weight has plummeted in
jail, and his wife believes he is suffering from malnutrition. In November
2005, she requested medical parole but the authorities have not responded.

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