Twitter

Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Many of the independent journalists recently imprisoned in Cuba were connected with the magazine De Cuba, including its editor, Ricardo Gonzalez, & the well-known journalist & poet Raul Rivero (both given twenty-year sentences). Gonzalez's home, one report says, was searched for eleven hours by ten policemen, who confiscated his computer & other equipment.

According to Reporters sans frontieres:

The appearance of De Cuba on 19 December last year was the first new challenge for several years to the government's information monopoly. A second issue came out on 27 February this year. Some 300 copies were printed and distributed secretly in the country's 14 provinces. The magazine, entirely staffed by independent journalists living in Cuba itself, aims to present fresh viewpoints to Cubans, whose only source of news is the official media.

De Cuba was produced on a PC, "printed" with a photocopier, & bound with staples & brown tape, according to this recent Associated Press story--authentic samizdat. But the tools of the information age give the magazine far wider reach: both issues can be downloaded in PDF format from this page at the RSF website (scroll down). Of course, the text is entirely in Spanish, so monoglots like me may need some assistance. Online Spanish-English dictionaries are available here.

No comments: