The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has been forceful in criticizing the Cuban Penal Codeapproved last Sunday in an extraordinary session, and has assured that it returns the Island to “dark times, when officials distanced themselves from the people through abuses and privileges.”
It’s a statement made public this wednesdaythe IAPA regrets that the new legislation “criminalizes the freedoms of the press and expression, as well as the freedoms of association and assembly” and has described the rule as retrograde.
“The Code has elements similar to military equipment, which the regime can use to attack and undermine the information and independent opinions of dissidents. Citizens will not even be able to freely use social networks or call their friends to protest,” he says. organization in your document.
“We already have the experience of how these provisions, under the excuse of defending sovereignty, are used to muzzle the independent press”
Regarding the updated crime of contempt, the president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati, regrets that “Cuban officials continue to protect themselves with absolutist privileges, typical of the monarchies of the past.”
The organization’s statement also includes the opinion of Carlos Jornet, president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, who affirms that Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela “are among the few countries that violate the precepts of the American Convention on Human Rights by criminalizing foreign economic assistance for human rights groups and independent media”.
“We already have experience of how these provisions, under the guise of defending sovereignty, are used to muzzle the independent press and silence dissenting voices,” asserts Jornet.
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