CUBA NEWS
December 22, 2003

Concern about Reporters Without Borders correspondent on hunger strike in prison 716y72

Reporters Without Borders, 19 December 2003.

Reporters Without Borders today voiced concern about its correspondent in Cuba, Ricardo Gonzlez Alfonso, who began a hunger strike in prison on 8 December to press his demand not to be held in a cell with non-political detainees.

"We hold the Cuban government responsible for our correspondent's health," the organisation said, noting that several journalists have recently been transferred to cells with non-political detainees where they risk being the victims of violence from their cell mates, sometimes instigated by the authorities.

With 29 journalists detained, Cuba is the world's biggest prison for the press, ahead of Burma with 16 and Eritrea with 14. Gonzlez is serving a 20-year sentence handed down on 7 April.

Gonzlez's wife Alida Viso Bello told Reporters Without Borders she found him a lot thinner when she visited him on 17 December in "Kilo 8" prison in the central province de Camagey, located more than 500 km from his home in Havana.

She said he did not want to continue sharing a cell with non-political detainees or, at least, to be put with detainees who were less violent. Since 6 November, he has been held in various cells in the prison's block 7 with non-political detainees, including one convicted of murder. Cell mates have twice stolen personal belongings from him.

A prison official who attended the meeting between Gonzlez and his wife said he was moved to a poorly-lit cell on 14 December as a punishment for "lack of discipline." The prison official added that it was not up to him whether Gonzlez was transferred to another cell.

Gonzlez was the president of the Manuel Mrquez Sterling Association of independent journalists and the editor of De Cuba, the first independent magazine published in Cuba since Fidel Castro came to power. He was arrested on 18 March 2003 and convicted of "actions against the independence and unity of the state."

He was detained in a crackdown in which a total of 26 independent journalists and some 50 other dissidents were rounded up. The journalists were sentenced to prison ranging from 14 to 27 years.

More information on Ricardo Gonzlez
More information on the magazine De Cuba
More information on the jailed cuban journalists

Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, , , Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.



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