(EFE). On Monday, Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the new list of political leaders considered “predators of press freedom” by Reporters Without Borders because of the absolute control over information and the repression of journalists who do not follow them. official line.
In its first update to that list since 2016, RSF explains that Díaz-Canel practices “Soviet-type totalitarianism” and that since his arrival as head of state in October 2019, he has maintained the streak of his predecessor, Raul Castro, with “almost absolute control of information.” For this reason, Raul Castro has already been classified as a predator in previous editions.
The organization tells how radios, televisions and newspapers in Cuba are tightly controlled by the state and that the constitution does not even allow a private press.
The main targets of their attacks, according to the organization, are the independent press, the opposition, and “all dissident voices.”
Journalists who do not conform to Castro’s line are also subjected daily to “arbitrary arrests and detentions, threats of imprisonment, persecution, harassment, illegal registration of residence, confiscation and destruction of journalistic materials.”
The main targets of their attacks, according to the organization, are the independent press, the opposition, and “all dissident voices.”
He also notes that the Cuban government also interferes with foreign press coverage by “selectively” awarding credits and expelling those it considers “extremely negative” with the regime.
In Latin America, Díaz-Canel is not the only “predator of press freedom” for RSF.
He shares this position with the presidents of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro (since taking power in 2013), Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega (since the start of his third consecutive term, in November 2016), and Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro (since taking office as Head of State in 2019). ).
Ortega’s presence on the list is justified by the “economic suffocation and judicial censorship” that the press has been subjected to since he began his third consecutive term, in November 2016, and that he has taken a new direction from the presidency’s perspective. Elections to be held in November.
Ortega’s presence on the list is justified by the “economic suffocation and judicial censorship” the press has been subject to since he began his third consecutive term, in November 2016.
Reporters Without Borders notes that it has reinforced its “arsenal of censorship” with “abusive” legal measures against those who oppose it, both in the political class and in the media, and among its main victims belongs to the Chamorro family, especially the journalist and now also. Presidential candidate Christiana Chamorro.
It was no surprise that bin Salman was able to enter this group, given the concentration of power in his hands since his father appointed him as his successor in 2017 and what RSF calls “unlimited barbarism”. Saudi Arabia – states the organization – is “one of the world’s largest prisons for journalists” and some of them are languishing behind bars without knowing the charges against them. Not to mention the case of a newspaper editor Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
For the first time in this edition there are two women “predators” at the same time, including the chief executive of Hong Kong, for acting like a “puppet in the hands of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in implementing the “freedom-killing policies against the press” that led in June to the disappearance The last independent newspaper, Apple Daily, has its founder, Jimmy Lai, imprisoned.
The other is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, who has led the country since 2009 and whose 2018 law on digital security – according to RSF always – has led to legal action against more than 70 journalists and bloggers.
Seven of the organization’s blacklist leaders have been since the first edition in 2001, and among them are Iran’s Ali Khamenei, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Belarusian Alexander Lukashenko.
Seven of the leaders of the organization’s blacklist have been there since the first edition in 2001, for example the leader of the Iranian revolution Ali Khamenei and the presidents of Syria Bashar al-Assad. Russia, Vladimir Putin, or Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko.
It is also from Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the head of state in the world who has been in office for the longest time in the reins of what journalists do not hesitate to describe as a “totalitarian dictatorship”, where the media landscape is that it is almost exclusively confined to the state agencies responsible for dissemination” Government propaganda” and where there is no foreign correspondent.
In the list published on Monday, which updates the previous list for 2016, Reporters Without Borders includes a total of 37 leaders from around the world criticizing the “massive suppression of press freedom”, among whom, for the first time since its inception, twenty years before, there was a head of state In the European Union: Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban.
The reason is that he considers that since Orban returned to power in 2010, he has not abandoned his efforts to attack “pluralism and media independence”. Driven by his idea of ”illiberal democracy”, he transformed the public radio and television service into a “propaganda apparatus” and transformed the private media into serfs or silenced them. This was made possible thanks to political and economic maneuvering and the purchase of the media by some oligarchy linked to his party, Fidesz.
To Bolsonaro, at the helm of Latin America’s largest democracy, the NGO blames him for the insults, insults and “vulgar threats” he has made to the press since becoming president in 2018. Since then, he asserted, “The work of the Brazilian press has become very complex” and has been The main targets of its attacks are female journalists, female politicians and the Globo Group.
________________________
Cooperation with our business:
Team 14 Medi He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the true depths of Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue our support but this time Become a member of our magazine. Together, we can continue to change the press in Cuba.
“Award-winning alcohol trailblazer. Hipster-friendly internetaholic. Twitter ninja. Infuriatingly humble beer lover. Pop culture nerd.”