MIAMI, United States. – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed this Friday in a statement their concern over reports of harassment of independent journalists in Cuba. According to the NGO, since mid-September of this year, at least eight journalists have been interrogated by State Security agents, in the midst of a government campaign of intimidation that has forced several to flee the country.
“The Cuban government’s campaign seems aimed at forcing the country’s non-state media into silence or exile,” said Katherine Jacobsen, CPJ’s program coordinator for the US, Canada and the Caribbean. Jacobsen added: “CPJ calls on Cuban authorities to respect the right of journalists to express themselves freely and report the news.”
The Cuban independent media The Touchwhich operates from exile, reported that these interrogations are part of investigations into alleged “mercenary” activities and the receipt of foreign financing, which would violate the security of the Cuban State. If convicted, the journalists could face sentences of between four and ten years in prison. According to CPJ, some of the journalists have been pressured to confess to subversive acts, while others faced threats of prosecution.
One of the journalists questioned was Jorge Fernández Era, a freelance writer who collaborates with The Touchwho was summoned twice by the authorities. Fernández reported that the authorities “expressed concern” about his writings. Another journalist, María Lucía Expósito, was interrogated for more than six hours, at which time authorities confiscated $1,000 and her cell phone.
Another case is that of Katia Sánchez, who collaborated with The Touch and SembraMedia, a non-profit organization that supports digital media. Sánchez was interrogated and threatened with possible prosecution after receiving a scholarship from the US Embassy in Havana to train journalists, CPJ reported. Subsequently, he left Cuba *on September 13).
CPJ confirmed that interrogations sometimes occurred in unofficial locations, with plainclothes officers pressuring journalists to sign confessions and admit to having committed “subversive” acts. In some cases, they were warned that it was a crime to participate in training programs funded by foreign governments. Furthermore, one of the journalists mentioned that they offered him to continue working as a journalist outside the state sector in exchange for becoming an informant for State Security.
The repression occurs amid the entry into force of a new Social Communication Law, which prohibits independent media in Cuba. This law was enacted following the anti-government protests of July 2021, when many journalists were persecuted for covering or sharing videos of the protests.
The Touch has also reported that, between 2022 and 2024, at least 150 Cuban journalists were forced into exile due to persecution by state security agents.
A representative of the International Press Center (CPI) of the Cuban government told CPJ that it “recommended investigating whether the US government financed these media outlets.”
CPJ assured that it continues to monitor the case and called on the international community to demand that the island’s regime respect the rights of journalists.
Just this Friday it emerged that an alleged State Security agent was summoned by telephone to the collaborator of CubaNet Adelth Bonne Gamboa and that the communicator and activist had refused to appear before the supposed authority if he did not receive an official summons.
In the call made to Bonne Gaboa, the alleged agent referred to “the new regulations”, that is, to the Social Communication Law that came into force last year and by which the Island’s regime has unleashed a wave of repression against journalists and communicators.
Last week several journalists and collaborators of CubaNet who reside on the Island were victims of repressive actions directed by regime authorities. These actions included threats, intimidation, brief detentions, and confiscation of work assets and money.
The journalists were threatened with high prison sentences or having the integrity of their families affected if they continued their work. However, the repression was not limited to verbal threats: several reporters from CubaNet They have also been filmed against their will under duress and after hours of psychological torture, according to what they reported.
