EU: The EU has congratulated journalist and poet Raúl Rivero (58), currently serving 20 years in a Cuban jail, on being awarded the annual World Press Freedom Prize by UNESCO.
Rivero is among 75 Cuban dissidents and independent journalists imprisoned last April following summary trials.
A statement issued yesterday by the Irish presidency said: "The European Union invites the Cuban government to reflect on the significance of the granting of this prize to Mr Rivero, and again calls on the Cuban authorities to release without delay all the imprisoned dissidents, some of whom are reported to be suffering from serious ill-health."
The EU said it concurred with the sentiments of UNESCO director-general, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, who said "the prize is a tribute to Raúl Rivero's brave and long-standing commitment to independent reporting, the hallmark of professional journalism".
In an interview in Havana last May, Ms Blanca Reyes, wife of Rivero, told The Irish Times her husband wanted free speech "to be able to write what he thought without being told what to write".
He had worked as Moscow correspondent for the Cuban wire service, Prensa Latina, from 1973 to 1977.
Speaking through an interpreter, she said: "In 1989, he broke with the revolution and rejected the government."
In 1995, he created the Cuba Press, an agency for independent journalism. He began to write for leading foreign newspapers such as El Pais and La Vanguardia in Spain, and Le Monde in France.
A year ago this week, on March 20th, 2003, 16 police officers came to pick him up. He told his wife during a prison visit that he was interrogated every three hours, morning and night, over a sustained period. The trial took place on April 4th, and lasted only seven hours. Rivero got 20 years for violating national security under "Law 88".
In a speech last on April, President Fidel Castro denounced the Cuban dissident organisations as "counter-revolutionary grouplets" who he said were collaborating with the US diplomatic representative in Havana to realise the Bush administration's desire to overthrow the socialist government.