SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico – State Security in Camagüey summoned independent journalist and CubaNet contributor José Luis Tan Estrada on Tuesday, October 8 for an alleged interview at the police station.
Under threat of being picked up in a patrol car and arrested for disobedience if he did not appear at the 3rd [national revolutionary police] Station in Camagüey, the political police have demanded that Tan show up at 1:30 pm Wednesday, October 9, for interrogation.
The order comes amid a wave of repression against the independent press in Cuba, which has affected several journalists and community media outlets.
Tan Estrada, a critical voice against the Cuban regime and a defender of human rights on the Island, has been repeatedly summoned, interrogated, and detained. The reporter has also led humanitarian efforts to help those most in need, which go beyond his journalistic work.
From collecting coats for those in need during last winter to delivering diapers and insulin to neglected patients, these have been some of their activities over the past year.
In the context of the implementation of the Social Communication Law, which has been criticized as a new tool for Cuban authorities to restrict freedom of expression and access to information, several journalists from CubaNet, Neighborhood Journalismand The Touch have been threatened, interrogated, forced to resign from their work, and ordered to return sums of money allegedly received from training programs or collaborations with international media outlets.
In addition to economic extortion, State Security has forced interrogated journalists to sign statements acknowledging they received funds from “subversive” projects, thus fabricating evidence against them. In some cases, they are coerced into publicly renouncing their independent journalism work and recording their confessions on video, according to the victims, as detailed in an editorial published by The Touch.
This modus operandi aims to discredit independent journalists and organizations, laying the groundwork for potential criminal charges against them. There is concern that the videos obtained during interrogations may be used in television programs to tarnish the victims’ reputations, following the media harassment pattern used in the past.
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