Two Cuban Journalists Released

Freed journalist Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez embraces his wife, Laura Pollán.

HAVANA:  Two journalists arrested in the 2003 crackdown on dissidents were released in February.  Iván Hernández Carrillo, 39, was released on parole after nearly eight years in jail on a 25-year sentence.  He was a reporter for the independent news agency Patria. After his release he told Agence France-Presse: “I am free. I will keep writing, as I did from prison and as I will now from the street. I will write of the events that affect ordinary Cubans.”

Héctor Maseda Gutiérrez, 67, who was serving a 20-year sentence, also was freed on parole, but he requested a pardon. He was a founding member of the independent news agency Gurpo de Trabajo Decoro and winner in 2008 of the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists. They were the first journalists of the Black Spring detainees allowed to remain in Cuba. Seventeen other reporters were released and flown to Spain, and two remain in jail.