Desde Dentro de Cuba.

Distribuido por Cuba Free Press, Inc. - http://www.cubafreepress.org

HAVANA, September 2, 1998, Cuba Free Press.

TWO INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS UNDER HARASSMENT By Ricardo González Alfonso, Cuba Free Press.

HAVANA - Two independent journalists from this news agency, Cuba Free Press, have been subjected to subtle harassment since they reported on a street disturbance by hundreds of people which took place here on August 28 across from the City of Havana Tribunal.

The two journalists are Ana Luisa Lopez Baeza and Efren Martinez Pulgaron. The street disturbance was a public protest of the sentence given to a government opposition leader, Reinaldo Alfaro.

Lopez Baeza was the only non-official journalist able to sit in on the trial of Alfaro, the vice-president of the Association of Struggle Against National Injustice (ALFIN). Alfaro was sentenced to three years in prison for reporting what prosecutors alleged was false news.

Martinez Pulgaron was able to record the slogans being shouted on the streets by several hundred dissidents and passersby who joined in the protest.

Subsequently, the landlord of the apartment where Martinez Pulgaron lives said he couldn't "put up with a counter-revolutionary tenant" and gave Martinez until September 2 to find another place to live. The journalist is convinced that the hand of the secret police is behind this harassment.

Meanwhile, Lopez Baeza was interrupted recently while receiving a phone call. After hearing her phone ring, she found she could hear a background recording that said: "The number you're trying to reach is temporarily out of order."

She said this is another tactic which is used regularly against peaceful opposition members, journalists, and human rights activists living in Cuba.

By Ricardo González Alfonso, Cuba Free Press.