Cuba expels two foreign reporters, says media
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| Published on Saturday, February 24, 2007 |
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CHICAGO, USA (AFP): Cuba has told two foreign journalists, one from the United States and one from Mexico, that they can no longer report from the country, their respective newspapers said Thursday.
Chicago Tribune correspondent Gary Marx, based in Havana since 2002, was told Wednesday that his stories were too "negative" and that his press credentials will not be renewed, the Tribune said.
The newspaper said Cuban officials told Marx that he and his family must leave the country within 90 days.
"They said I've been here long enough and they felt my work was negative," Marx told the paper. "They did not cite any examples."
Meanwhile, the Mexican newspaper El Universal said on its website Thursday that its Havana reporter Cesar Gonzalez Calero was also told his visa to report from Cuba would not be renewed.
"Their explanation was that 'The way of approaching the Cuban situation is not the most agreeable to the Cuban government,'" said Gonzalez Calero, a Spanish national who has been reporting from Cuba since April 2003.
He was told Wednesday by the government that he had to stop reporting from February 28.
Cuban officials told Marx they would welcome an application from a new Chicago Tribune correspondent. But the paper said such an application might take time to process and the credentials would need to be renewed every 30 days.
In the meantime, a reporter from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which is owned by the Tribune Company, will continue to staff the company's Havana office.
"We're very disappointed and concerned by the news that the Cuban government has decided to not renew our correspondent's credentials and has asked him and his family to leave the island," said George de Lama, the Chicago Tribune's managing editor for news.
"Gary Marx is an accomplished, veteran journalist who has consistently given our readers accurate, incisive and insightful coverage from Cuba, working under sometimes difficult conditions," de Lama said.
"We remain committed to coverage of Cuba and its people, and we are assessing our options of how to proceed," he said.
Roberto Rock, vice president of El Universal, called Havana's move "a technical expulsion" of the paper's correspondent.
Rock said the paper is preparing an official protest, to be submitted to the Cuban embassy in Mexico.
The Committee to Protect Journalists' Americas program coordinator, Carlos Lauria, said Thursday that his group was "dismayed by the Cuban government's decision to effectively ban two well-respected journalists from doing their jobs by not renewing their press credentials."
"The decision comes in clear reprisal for their independent reporting. We urge the Cuban government to review its decision and allow the journalists to continue reporting from Cuba," he added. | | | | Reads : 141 | | | |
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