After Brief Respite, Cuba Once Again Intimidating Press

After briefly allowing more freedom for journalists, the Cuban government has begun a new campaign of intimidation, said a report presented to the Inter-American Press Association on Monday.

“The journalists receive anonymous telephone calls, they are physically attacked as they walk the streets and, in other cases, the police forces detain them,” said the report presented by Eduardo Ulibarri, director of the Costa Rican daily La Nacion.

The crackdown this year “has been the largest offensive against independent journalists so far in the 1990s,” it said.

The report was read to the organization’s commission on press freedom on the eve of the opening of the full convention, attended by newspaper representatives from throughout the Americas, on Tuesday in San Jose.

Dozens recently were arrested after a dissident coalition, Concilio Cubano, asked for permission to hold a conference last month. It was denied.

Among those arrested was Raul Rivero, head of the group CubaPress. Rivero had been invited to attend the conference here but was unable to get government documents needed to leave Cuba.

In a taped report presented to the commission, Rivero said that near the end of 1995, “there was the impression that the space for our press was broadened.” After recent events, he said, “we have almost abandoned all hope.”