In a September 11 statement, Reporters Without Borders added that the Cuban regime is showing "bad faith" regarding a draft of a final document that will follow a summit meeting of the world's nonaligned nations, being held in Cuba's capital of Havana September 11-16. The protection and promotion of human rights are among the objectives to be outlined in the document, the Paris group said. But the Cuban regime is disregarding human rights principles by doing "its utmost to limit coverage" of the Havana meeting by expelling foreign journalists from the country.The only discussion taking place about human rights, is how to drive it back 3,000 years.
Reporters Without Borders reaffirmed its previous declarations that Cuba is the "second biggest prison in the world for journalists," after China, and is holding 23 independent Cuban journalists behind bars.
Here is the whole article...Link does not work [http://newsblaze.com/story/20060912143129tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html]
Press Group Calls Cuba's Castro "Predator" of Press Freedom
Cuba said to be expelling foreign journalists from global meeting
Ailing Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is a "predator" of press freedom, says the Paris-based global press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders.
In a September 11 statement, Reporters Without Borders added that the Cuban regime is showing "bad faith" regarding a draft of a final document that will follow a summit meeting of the world's nonaligned nations, being held in Cuba's capital of Havana September 11-16. The protection and promotion of human rights are among the objectives to be outlined in the document, the Paris group said. But the Cuban regime is disregarding human rights principles by doing "its utmost to limit coverage" of the Havana meeting by expelling foreign journalists from the country.
The United States and other members of the international community repeatedly have called for release from jail of Cuban independent journalists.
Castro, sidelined by an announced intestinal illness, temporarily has handed power to his younger brother Ra�l. News reports said it is unknown what role, if any, Fidel Castro will play in the summit.
Reporters Without Borders reaffirmed its previous declarations that Cuba is the "second biggest prison in the world for journalists," after China, and is holding 23 independent Cuban journalists behind bars. (See related article.)
The press group said several heads of state "who hold press freedom and pluralism in contempt," such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will be "greeted in the Cuban capital by another predator of free expression in the person of Fidel Castro."
The Havana summit, said Reporters Without Borders, "should not be used as a screen for governments for whom the imbalance" between the developed and developing world "justifies dictatorship, oppression and the absence of a state of law." The group said it hoped that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is scheduled to attend the meeting, will "remind Cuba of the goals of the non-aligned movement in relation to human rights and fundamental liberties."
Reporters Without Borders said the ministers of the nonaligned countries have reaffirmed the importance "to the promotion and protection of human rights and commitment to fulfill obligations to promote universal respect for, and observance and protection of, all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all in accordance to the U.N. Charter and other international instruments."
But the group said that "we can unfortunately expect that countries" such as Iran "will sign a promise that they have no intention of honoring, not forgetting Cuba," which as the president of the nonaligned movement is supposed to promote that human rights commitment.
Reporters Without Borders said 3,000 delegates from 116 member countries (soon to be 118 with the forthcoming membership of Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis) and representatives of several observer countries, such as China, are expected to attend the nonaligned movement's 14th summit in Havana. The group said the nonaligned movement was founded in September 1961 by countries that did not want to take sides in that era's Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
Several other global press advocacy groups previously joined with Reporters Without Borders in protesting the Cuban government's refusal to allow foreign journalists into the country to cover Castro's announced health crisis.
The Miami-based Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), for example, said August 7 that Castro's health crisis led international news organizations to seek urgent entry into Cuba for their reporters. But, the IAPA said, Cuban officials had denied entry into Cuba of at least four journalists for failing to get the necessary entry visa, which takes several weeks to obtain. In addition, four other journalists from Europe, who had complied with Cuba's visa requirements, had their permission to enter the country revoked.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in an August 3 statement that little is known about Castro's illness, other than he underwent surgery for intestinal bleeding, as Cuba's government announced. (See related article.)
The U.S. State Department said in an April 5 report called Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record 2005-2006, that Cuban officials and their "proxies" increasingly tormented pro-democracy activists and independent journalists through the use of mob actions known as "acts of repudiation."
The report said accused dissidents, some charged with common crimes, "received sham trials, and those sent to prison were often held in harsh conditions." The Western Hemisphere section of the report is available on the State Department Web site.
Source: U.S. Department of State
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