Free the press for Cuba
Say it loud and say it proud and say it today — "Havana, I demand you release the journalists imprisoned in your gulag."
One of the surest measures of the Cuban regime, that it is nothing more than a dictatorship, is the absence of freedom of the press. No nation can be free if the government, as the Castro dictatorship has done, uses its police and judicial powers to suppress the free flow of accurate information in order to guarantee its own survival
And the most certain indicator that there is no freedom of the press in Cuba is the imprisonment of 27 independent journalists who, despite knowing the odds were against them, chose to buck the communist system to tell the real stories of the real Cuba.
Standing up and speaking for these reporters and editors has been a a major focus of this blogalmost since its inception last year. As a Cuban and as someone with the good fortune to work as a journalist is the freest nation in history, I proudly accept the responsibility to bear witness for these brave men and to do whatever I can to ensure the world does not forget them.
In not forgetting my colleagues in Cuba, I hope it will help them, each one of them a hero, be set free.
Today, other bloggers, and, hopefully, most American newspapers will heed a call from the Inter American Press Association and jointly demand that the Cuban governement release from its gulag its imprisoned journalists.
The Castro brothers will likely ignore us, but that is no excuse for doing nothing, no excuse for staying silent. Their indifference only illustrates the justness of the cause.
If you value your freedom of the press, your freedom to blog as you wish, if that freedom really means anything to you, then you, too, will stand up and speak for Cuba's independent press.
To learn more about the imprisoned journalists, click on the links on the left side of the page, under "March 18 Project."
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Sign petition for release of Cuban political prisoners
