Jailed Cuban writer gets UNESCO award
published: Wednesday | February 25, 2004

THE UNITED Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) yesterday awarded incarcerated Cuban journalist Raul Rivero Castaneda the UNESCO/ Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for 2004.

The award was announced by UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, on the recommendation of an international jury headed by Oliver Clarke, chairman and managing director of The Gleaner Company Ltd.

"The prize is a tribute to Raul Rivero's brave and long-standing commitment to independent reporting, the hallmark of professional journalism," Mr. Matsuura said in endorsing the recommendation to award the prize to Mr. Rivero, the UNESCO's Bureau of Public Information reported.

"Over the years, Mr. Rivero has paid dearly for that commitment and the prize celebrates the continuing struggle of media professionals for freedom of expression, an indispensable component of democracy."

The UNESCO director-general also said he was deeply concerned about the conditions in which Mr. Rivero, who is reported to be ill, is being held.

The Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica, Jose Piedra, yesterday said he would not comment on the award when contacted by The Gleaner.

Mr. Clarke, after submitting the jury's recommendation, declared: "I hope that the international attention the prize generates will encourage the Cuban authorities to respect individuals basic human right to express their views freely."

Mr. Rivero, a prominent journalist and poet, was born in 1945.

After studying at the Havana Faculty of Journalism, he served as correspondent for the Prensa Latina state news agency in Moscow from 1973 to 1976.

He then returned to Cuba and headed the science and culture service of the news agency. In 1989, he resigned from the National Union of Cuban Writers and Artists and, in 1995, founded the Cuba Press, an independent news agency.

In 2001, Mr. Rivero was among the founders of the first independent association of journalists in Cuba.

He has been the target of regular interrogations and detentions by the Cuban authorities in their attempt to restrict his freedom of movement until he was finally imprisoned last year.

He, along with 25 other journalists, were imprisoned in April 2003. He got a 20-year sentence.

They were tried under Article 91 of the Penal code, which imposes lengthy prison sentences or death for undermining the independence or territorial integrity of the State. The journalists arrest last March was part of a crackdown in which more than 50 dissidents were jailed.

According to reports, Mr. Rivero is detained in the prison of Canaletas in Ciego de vila, 460 kilometres east of Havana. He is said to be suffering from circulatory problems.

The US$25,000 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is awarded each year on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, which will be celebrated this year in Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro).

The prize, created by UNESCO's Executive Board in 1997, aims to honour the work of an individual, organisation or institution defending or promoting freedom of expression anywhere in the world, especially if this puts the person's life at risk.