Freed Cuban Journalist To Speak, At Last, At IAPA

By: Mark Fitzgerald Cuban journalist Ra&3250;l Rivero has been a member of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) for ten years, has served on its freedom of press committee since 1998, and he?s been on its board of directors for the last three years.

This weekend will be the first time he?s ever been able to actually attend an IAPA meeting.

Because Rivero dared in 1995 to create Cuba Press, an independent news agency in a nation that claims a monopoly on information, Fidel Castro?s government always prevented him from participating at IAPA meetings. For many years he was denied travel visas, and limited his participation to a telephone call-in.

Then in March 2003, he was swept up in a mass arrests that landed 75 dissidents, including other 31 journalists like Rivero. He was put on trial within days of his arrest and sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of ?collaborating? with the United States.

Rivero was freed last November 30, and earlier this year was granted a temporary permit allowing him and his family to live abroad for two years. Since this April he has been living in Spain with his wife, Blanca Reyes, his daughter Yenia and his mother, Hortensia Casta?eda.

On Oct. 9, Rivero will address his IAPA colleagues at the organization?s 61st General Assembly in Indianapolis. His topic is entitled, ?The Diary of an Imprisoned Journalist.?

Cuba?s oppression of journalists and the exchange of free information is a perennial topic at IAPA, but this year there is increasing worry among the editors and publisher of the hemisphere about the state of press freedom in the U.S., too.

During the assembly, which concludes Oct. 11, the 400 newspaper editors and publishers attending will vote on resolutions about the recent jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, and on the prospects for a federal reporter?s shield law. U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, sponsor of the federal shield law bill, will be among the speakers.