Twenty-one of the 125 journalists imprisoned in the world because of their work as of Dec. 1 is in a Cuban jail, according to Committee to Protect Journalists. Only China, with 28, is a bigger jailer of journalists, but factor in the large population difference — China has about 1.3 billion people; Cuba, about 11.3 million — and Cuba takes the gold medal as the world's worst oppressor of a free press.
CPJ is one of the staunchest advocates for Cuba's independent journalists, but I think it undercounts the number of journalists in the Castro gulag. By my estimate, as detailed in the links on the right sidebar under "March 18 Project," there currently are 27 journalists in Cuban jails.
According to CPJ's survey, three Cuban journalists — Alejandro Gonzalez Raga, Juan Ramon Castillo and Guillermo Espinosa Rodriguez — were released from prison since Dec. 1, 2007, when its survey showed 24 journalists in Cuban jails. I have not been able to independently confirm Espinosa's release — he was sentenced in November 2006 to 2 years of house arrest — but if true, the more accurate count is 26.
And doesn't take into account the harassment and repression the dictatorship and its agents dole out to independent journalists working the Cuban streets today. For instance, one well-known journalist last week had his camera confiscated by police because his work was judged to be a threat to national security, according to an e-mail I received from the island.
Whatever the true number — and in fact, the difference is morally insignificant — there is no denying Cuba's status as one of the most dangerous places on Earth for journalists.
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