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Cuba

170 out of 175 in the latest worldwide index

• Area: 110,860 sq. km

• Population: 11,267,000

• Language: Spanish

• Head of state: Raul Castro since February 2008

Cuba is the sole country on the American continent not to tolerate an independent press. It still ranks as one of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists, with 25 in jail. There have been a few cautious changes since Raul Castro took power.

Cuba is the only country on the American continent that does not tolerate an independent press outside the tight control of the state. The official media (one television station, one radio, two daily newspapers - Granma and Juventud Rebelde - and their local offices) have the job of relaying official propaganda. Only a few Catholic magazines are permitted. Dissident journalists therefore all work secretly and are forced to publish with external help, in particular through websites run by the Cuban diaspora in Miami, what they cannot publish to their fellow citizens on the island. Cuba has been the world’s third biggest prison for journalists, after China and Eritrea, since the “black spring” crackdown on dissidents in March 2003. Nineteen of the 27 journalists arrested at the time remain behind bars, including the Reporters Without Borders’ correspondent, Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso. Another journalist was sentenced in 2005 to seven years in prison while four others were handed down sentences of three to four years after the interim presidency Raul Castro from 31 July 2006, before he officially succeeded his brother, on 24 February 2008. Harassment of dissidents continues, even if the new government has given a few cautious signs of openness. Four days after the inauguration of Raul Castro on 27 February 2008, Cuba signed - without ratifying them - two UN human rights pacts (one on financial, social and cultural rights and the other on civil and political rights). Cubans on 24 February had a ban lifted on using major hotels with better Internet connections and on buying individual computer equipment. Mobile phones were also legalised. Four dissidents arrested during “black spring”, including journalist Alejandro Gonzalez Raga, were released on 15 February 2008, after mediation by the Spanish government which also gave them the right to relocate to the country. Use of the Internet remains under close control, even if connection problems are also due to the restrictions imposed under the US embargo that has been in force since 1962. Two more journalists were arrested in 2009. Alberto Santiago Du Bouchet, of the independent news agency Habana Press, was given a three-year prison sentence on 12 May (after serving a one-year sentence in 2005) and medical doctor and journalist Darsi Ferrer, a government target for several years, was arrested and jailed on 21 July.