Published on 3 January 2006
1 February 2010 - Dissident journalist arrested in Holguín as freedom to inform is stalled
16 October 2009 - Doctor and journalist starts hunger strike after 80 days in preventive detention as clampdown continues
25 September 2009 - Editor of online newspaper Candonga released after two weeks in custody
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the use of threats by state security agents on 29 December against 21-year-old Liannis Meriño Aguilera, the editor of the independent Youth without Censorship news agency.
“We again protest against the constant harassment of independent journalists by the Cuban authorities, which is often the prelude to arbitrary arrests and heavy prison sentences,” the press freedom organisation said. “We call on the authorities to let Meriño and her team of young journalists work freely.”
Meriño was arrested at her home in Obrero Banes (in the eastern province of Holguín) by two state security agents, who took her to the local fire brigade centre and held her there for two hours, the Cubanet website reported.
The agent in charge of combating the opposition in Holguín ordered her to stop working as an independent journalist. He also accused her of reporting false information, which is punishable by imprisonment.
After being released, Meriño rejected the accusation and said she intended to continue her work. Her news agency, which was created in September, consists of six young journalists aged between 19 and 30.
Meriño recently wrote a dispatch for Cubanet about the dismissal of two persons from a cigar factory for homosexuality. It may have been this that prompted the use of threats by the authorities.
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez was arrested in March 2003 during an unprecedented crackdown launched by the Cuban government and sentenced to 26 years in prison after being found guilty of being a "mercenary in the service of a foreign power".
