CPJ CONDEMNS ASSAULT, HARASSMENT OF CUBAN BLOGGERS

CPJ CONDEMNS ASSAULT, HARASSMENT OF CUBAN BLOGGERS
2009-11-09.
Comité Para la Protección de los Periodistas

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- We issued the following statement in
response to reports that Cuban bloggers Yoani Sánchez, Claudia Cadelo,
and Omar Luís Pardo Lazo were detained, assaulted and harassed by state
security agents on their way to a peaceful march in Havana. Details of
the incident were published on the Web site of Global Voices.

"The individuals who abducted these three Cuban bloggers, forced them
into a car, and then beat them were acting like criminals, plain and
simple," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ Americas senior program coordinator.
"It is horrifying to contemplate that they were in fact state security
agents. That the Cuban government would sanction bloggers being beaten
in the streets of Havana simply for expressing their ideas demonstrates
the depth to which the government will go to suppress dissent."

Despite huge obstacles, a vibrant culture of independent blogging and
online journalism has emerged in Cuba, a recent CPJ report found. "We
call on President Raúl Castro to halt the harassment of bloggers, and to
release the 22 journalists currently imprisoned in Cuba," added Lauría.

CPJ CONDEMNS ASSAULT, HARASSMENT OF CUBAN BLOGGERS - Misceláneas de Cuba
(9 November 2009)
http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=24126