BEING A JOURNALIST IN CUBA

Authorities rough up independent journalist, hold her for seven hours
Reporters Without Borders today deplored the use of violence by State Security and National Revolutionary Police on the Isle of Youth against Lamasiel Gutiérrez Romero of the Nueva Prensa Cubana news agency, who was roughed up, held for seven hours and fined for resisting the authorities as she was about to travel to the Cuban mainland on 14 July.
"Once again we have to condemn the brutal and arbitrary methods used by the Cuban authorities against the independent press," the organisation said. "As usual, the most absurd charges were brought against a journalist whose only crime is failing to spout official propaganda. These idiotic and revolting ploys should stop."
A resident of the Isle of Youth (located off the western province of Pinar del Río), Gutiérrez had just bought a ticket to Havana when three State Security agents arrested her. "They hit me in the chest and back, pinned me to the ground and then a National Revolutionary Police patrol car pulled up and they took me to the police station," she told Reporters Without Borders.
She was interrogated and made to pay two fines, of 30 and 20 pesos. "The police accused me of insubordination, disturbing the peace and resisting the authorities. They said I was harming the revolution and could get a prison sentence of one to two years." She said she thought her arrest was prompted by her participation in a meeting of independent journalists on 4 July.
She was sent to a hospital to be examined but the doctors there declined to give her a medical certificate. "The doctors said the marks left by the blows were not visible enough," she told Reporters Without Borders.
She was sent back to the police station after the medical examination. "I spent seven hours in a filthy cell, with no water and food. The policemen threatened me again. They ordered me to stop my activities, which I won't do." She was finally released at 1 a.m. on 15 July.
Gutiérrez is the wife of Rolando Jiménez Posada, a political prisoner who has been held since 25 April 2003.


Imprisoned journalist threatens to starve himself to death
Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today about the fate of imprisoned journalist Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, who has announced in a message to the organisation that he began a hunger strike on 14 July and will starve himself to death if he is not released soon.
The editor of the Felix Varela news agency, a small independent agency based in the eastern province of Camagüey, Mayo Hernández has been in prison since March 2003.
"We take his warning seriously and the Cuban government would be well-advised to do so as well," Reporters Without Borders said. "Must the government wait until one of the 21 journalists held since the Black Spring of 2003 dies before it finally agrees to release the others ?"
The organisation added : "By committing himself to an indefinite hunger strike, Mayo Hernández is representing all of his fellow-journalists and other dissidents who have been convicted without cause and pushed to their limit by more two years of detention in filthy prisons. His desperate act calls for an urgent pardon for him and all the Black Spring's other victims, even if this means pardoning innocent men."
Mayo Hernández's wife, Maidelin Guerra Álvarez, yesterday sent Reporters Without Borders the following message from her husband :
"I will not wait until the government deigns to grant the release of 20 detainees because they are ill or because Fidel Castro needs to improve his international image. I have even less intention of waiting 10 or 20 years (…).
"I was imprisoned just for freely saying what I think and for practising independent journalism on this island. I have never lied about human rights violations in Cuba. This is why I will maintain my hunger strike until I obtain my freedom or I die. If death is the price to pay, I am ready to pay it, but I want the world to know that nothing short of freedom will now be able to stop me."
Arrested on 19 March 2003, Mayo Hernández was sentenced on 4 April 2003 to 20 years in prison for "threat to the state's independence or territorial integrity." He has been transferred from prison to prison four times since his arrest and has been in Kilo 7 prison in Camagüey since 21 June.
He has had several spells in prison infirmaries or hospital because of his many ailments, which include pulmonary emphysema, high blood pressure and inflammation of the prostate. He already went on hunger strike for a month in November to protest against prison conditions and mistreatment by guards.