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RSF denounces the detention of three journalists in Cuba in four days

Reporters Without Borders counts the detentions of Yoani Sánchez, Camila Acosta and Adelth Bonne Gamboa, and recalls that Henry Constantín has been in prison since September 16 in Camagüey.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) denounced on Friday the detention in Cuba of three journalists in four days and said those actions violate the public's right to be informed, according to the EFE news agency. The three are Yoani Sánchez, director of 14ymedio; Camila Acosta, of CubaNet and correspondent for the Spanish daily ABC, and Adelth Bonne Gamboa, a CubaNet contributor.

«Reporting is not a crime», said RSF's Latin America director, Artur Romeu, who described the detentions as an attempt to intimidate journalists covering matters of public interest and, in Sánchez's case, as a direct attack on 14ymedio, an outlet that, he said, keeps reporting from the island despite years of harassment.

The organisation recalled that Henry Constantín, director of La Hora de Cuba, has been in prison since September 16 in Camagüey. RSF has recorded at least 19 earlier detentions of him and 15 days in solitary confinement during his current imprisonment.

Diario de Cuba places the cases within a single wave: the brief arrests of Acosta and Bonne Gamboa and the imprisonment of Constantín were followed on Thursday by the detentions of Sánchez and of the leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler. Sánchez was released and charged.

Amnesty International called on the Cuban government to respect press freedom and release imprisoned journalists, and denounced the use of arbitrary detention, surveillance, threats and gender-based violence to silence women journalists, activists and defenders. The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Inter American Press Association also condemned the escalation, according to Diario de Cuba.

The United States deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Juan Pablo Segura, wrote that «the Cuban regime shows its cowardice by resorting to arbitrary detentions because it fears the truth», and framed the arrests within a continuing campaign against the independent press, in remarks reported by Diario de Cuba.

The Cuban Observatory of Freedom of Expression, part of the Cuban Institute for Freedom of Expression and Press, denounced a 129.4% rise in press freedom violations on the island in the space of a single month, and sorted the motives into three strands: preventive repression against already identified figures, containment of civil society's links with international actors, and punishment of everyday expression on social media.

Sources: Diario de Cuba · EFE

Data updated: 2026-11-06T16:15:00.000Z

RSF denounces the detention of three journalists in Cuba in four days | Yamacoa Observatory