Ten independent journalists, mostly e-newspeople, have been thrown in the Cuban calaboose in an expanded crackdown on political opposition, says Internet journalism watchdog Reporters Without Borders. Police were said to have gone house to house, rounding up the ten reporters and 24 other political activists, the group reported, with the victims' computers, books, and papers confiscated.
RWB said the reporters and activists - including dissident magazine De Cuba editor Ricardo Gonzalez - were were accused of being on the payroll of James Cason, the United States's diplomatic representative in Havana whom Fidel Castro's government accuses of "subversive"activities. If they're tried under Cuba's Communist law, they could each face up to 20 years in prison, RWB added.
The watchdog group's secretary general, Robert Menard, said the arrests mean "the end of a period of relative tolerance"of the independent press by Castro's regime. "The seizure of equipment from the home of (González) will mean its closure after only two issues, which shows the authorities brook no challenge to their monopoly of news inside the country."
The Cuban government reportedly made an official statement on television saying the journalists and activists would be prosecuted under Cuban law that bars "serious acts of collaborating with the enemy"...including working with foreign media and "subversion on behalf of the imperialist ends of the United States,"RWB said.
The journalists included, aside from Gonzalez, eleven other press agency leaders, correspondents, and a freelance journalist. RWB said the arrest could mean the end of De Cuba, which Gonzalez edited and produced on his computer and fax machine, after only two issues.
