Reporters Without Borders 1 October 2007

In a phone call with a reporter working for the news website Payolibre, imprisoned journalist Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, said he felt “very weak” but was ready to continue his hunger strike “to the end.” Arrested in the March 2003 crackdown and serving a 20-year jail sentence, Herrera is not receiving medical attention for his heart and digestive problems.

“I request the support of Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Inter-American Press Association and other international organisation, so that they defend free expression and human rights,” he told Payolibre. Herrera has been on intermittent hunger strikes since 26 December 2006 in protest against conditions in his prison in Camagüey.