02 July 2003
U.S. Institution
Honors Cuban Dissident Group for Bravery
(Columbia University awards citation to "La Sociedad" group) (690)
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A special citation for bravery has been awarded by New York's
Columbia University to a Cuban group called La Sociedad de Periodistas
Manuel Marquez Sterling, many of whose members were arrested and sentenced
to prison during a recent crackdown on dissidents in Cuba.
The Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for 2003, administered by the university's
graduate school of journalism, cited La Sociedad for "an unprecedented
demonstration of courage and professionalism at enormous personal cost"
during the latest wave of repression undertaken against dissidents by the
regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
The group published two issues of De Cuba, a general-interest magazine,
before being shut down by the Castro regime. Many of the magazine's staff,
as well as members of La Sociedad, were sent to Cuban prisons for terms
ranging from 14 years to 27 years.
The Cabot special citations (which are awarded only sporadically) are
intended to honor organizations or individuals that, despite the lack of a
traditional large body of work over many years, have significantly
contributed to journalism, the university said in a statement. La Sociedad
-- named for the Cuban journalist and writer Manuel Marquez Sterling -- is
only two years old, "yet its brief history of publishing an independent
general-interest magazine in Cuba marked a historic moment in what then
appeared to be an opening- up of Cuba's media environment," the university
said.
The university added that "unfortunately, after two issues, the bi-monthly
magazine De Cuba ceased publication because many on its staff, as well as
others among the 55-member Sociedad, were arrested, charged, and convicted
of 'subversion' for seeking to express their independent voices."
Columbia University said that no individuals from the group "will be able to
be present" in New York to receive the Cabot citation.
The 65th annual Cabot Prizes were also awarded to four journalists for
outstanding coverage of the Western Hemisphere. The winners were Joao
Antonio Barros, from Brazil's Jornal O Dia; Raul Kraiselburd, from
Argentina's El Dia; Mac Margolis, from Newsweek International; and Michael
Reid, Americas editor for The Economist.
The awards are presented to reporters and editors who have, "through their
coverage, demonstrated commitment to freedom of the press and inter-American
understanding," Columbia said. Each prize-winner receives a Cabot medal and
a $5,000 honorarium, plus travel and expenses to New York for the awards
ceremony at Columbia University on October 9.
The Cabot prizes are awarded by the Trustees of Columbia University on the
recommendation of Columbia's Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism and
the Cabot prize board, which is composed of journalists and educators
concerned with Western Hemisphere affairs. The awards were founded by the
late industrialist and philanthropist Godfrey Lowell Cabot as a memorial to
his wife.
On another matter related to Cuba, the personal representative to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has called on the Castro regime
to pardon 50 Cubans sentenced to long prison terms during the recent
crackdown on dissidents.
In a June 27 statement, the U.N. said the representative, Christine Chanet,
made her appeal after the Cuban Supreme Court upheld the sentences earlier
that month.
The appeal followed a resolution adopted April 21 by the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights urging Cuba to allow a visit by Chanet, who is charged with
investigating questions related to the exercise of civil liberties on the
island.
Those actions came as the United States and international bodies such as the
Organization of American States condemned the trials and convictions of the
dissidents.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, for instance, issued a May 4
denunciation of the Castro regime for jailing people "who choose to speak
their own mind."
Powell said Cuba is an "anachronism" in the Western Hemisphere and on the
"face of the earth," adding that "the whole international community should
be condemning Cuba."
The secretary said Cuba "sits there isolated, getting poorer and broker,
more irrelevant on the world stage, and sooner or later this [Castro] regime
will pass" into history.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) |
