I was remiss in not noting on Tuesday that four journalists were awarded the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists:
The recipients include: Abdul Samay Hamed, an independent writer, publisher, political cartoonist, and poet from Afghanistan; Aboubakr Jamai, who publishes two of Morocco's groundbreaking weekly newspapers, Le Journal Hebdomadaire and its sister publication, Assahifa al Ousbouiya; Musa Muradov, editor-in-chief of the weekly Groznensky Rabochy, one of Chechnya's only independent publications; and Manuel Vázquez Portal, who helped establish the independent news agency Grupo de Trabajo Decoro and is serving an 18-year prison sentence in Cuba on spurious charges.
"The work of these four brave journalists is driven by their devotion to the fundamental principles of press freedom—the principle that all people have the right to seek and receive news and information," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper in introducing the awardees.
I thought that comment was especially appropriate for Manuel Vázquez Portal, the only winner who could not attend. This comment is also on point:
Speaking in front of a photograph of Vázquez Portal, CPJ's Washington, D.C., representative Frank Smyth noted that, "There does not appear to be any particular reason why the regime targeted this journalist, except that his reporting and well written, often lyrical, opinion columns have been consistently critical of the regime."
What a pity that message is completely lost on Castro's useful idiots in the American Library Association.
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