Cuba Blocks 6 Journos From Attending FIU Workshop
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003725825
By E&P Staff
Published: March 14, 2008 5:20 PM ET
CHICAGO Cuban authorities arrested two independent journalists and
detained four others in their home to prevent them from attending a
videoconference journalism workshop run by Florida International
University, an independent Cuban journalist re****ted through CubaNet
Friday.
Journalist Jose Antonio Fornaris re****ted that Richard Rosello -- one
of the two journalists arrested and held by state security agents for
several hours -- was warned by the agents not to attend the workshop.
The six journalists were all detained or arrested Monday, when the
conference took place in the offices of the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana.
And one of the four journalists prevented from leaving their homes
told Fornaris that two agents who came to his home that Monday morning
said "they had orders" to keep him from the workshop. The agents kept
watch outside his home until after the workshop was scheduled to end,
Gonzalez said, according to the account on CubaNet. CubaNet is a Miami-
based non-profit organization that publishes online the work of
independent journalists in Cuba. It receives U.S. government funding.
Since 1999, FIU has operated a distance learning program to train
independent journalists in Cuba, which does not permit an independent
press.
According to the CubaNet story, 27 independent journalists attended
the workshop. FIU's International Media Center, which is responsible
for the workshops, says it has trained more than 200 journalists in
Cuba in the program's nine years.
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