Cuba: Stifling of freedom of press through weaponization of law does not intimidate Yadisley Rodríguez

August 1, 2020, Havana, Cuba -- Draconian laws and media monopoly in Cuba, which does not allow private media enterprises threatens the freedom of press and right to obtain information.

Activists and independent reporters in Cuba have been exposed to police surveillance and arbitrary house raids along with the confiscation of electronics and equipment.

Last Friday, Palenque Vision reporter Yadisley Rodriguez was taken from her house, interrogated for 18 hours and had her computer, mobile phone, and memory cards confiscated.  

Yadisley believes that the raid was caused by a suspicion that director of Palenque Vision, Rolando Rodríguez Lobaina - who has an arrest warrant against - visited Yadisley’s home. 

During the interrogation, they pressured her to tell him about her links with the reporter. "They asked me where Rolando was, why he had come to my house and what he had given me," she explained. 

"They told me that they were going to jail me and that they were going to take my children and my husband could have his parole revoked," she later said.

In an interview with Cubanet, the journalist said that she was not beaten but she did receive "shoves" and when she refused to hand over her cell phone and broke the sim card they "shook her" in front of her three young children.

Yadislev, during the interview sent a message to independent Cuban reporters, repressed by the regime: "Do not allow yourselves to be intimidated or intimidated,"

"If there is something that the dictatorship is afraid of, it is independent journalists because we make sure that the world sees the bad things they do," she concluded.

Weaponization law is one of the intimidation tactics that Cuban government uses, which has ranked as 9th from the bottom in freedom of press for decades. This January, journalist and activist Iliana Hernandez was charged, her home raided and interrogated for “illegal ownership of equipment”. 

Subjecting women journalists to intimidation through legal threats is absolutely unacceptable. legal threats. It is the responsibility of the Cuban authorities to ensure the provision of justice and freedom of the press.