Reporters Without Borders Award

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The secretary General of Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, was presented with the Fourth Antonio Asencio prize for journalism by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

At the awards ceremony, Wednesday night, Menard took up the plight of 24 journalists jailed in Cuba. He praised Spain for denouncing the murders of journalists in Colombia and Mexico, but complained that Spain has remained complacent with the repressive Cuban dictatorship.

Spain is one of Cuba’s most important trade partners and tens of thousands of Spaniards vacation on the Island every year. Spain’s Hotel Melia owns 23 resorts on the island nation. Cuba also is in default of $816Million in debt to the Spaniards

Reporters Without Borders has been working for 20 years for freedom of the press and human rights world-wide. According to the watch dog agency, there are 130 journalists jailed throughout the world with 24 imprisoned by the communist regime in Cuba.

Reporters Without Borders recently named Cuba the 4^th worst offender in curtailing freedom of the press and was behind an investigative reporting exposé on Cuban controls on the internet.