On 10 February 2014 the news arrived, first as a rumour, that Gorki’s trial had been suspended. Then at 3:27pm over Facebook, Gorki Águila gave the following status update: “At 2:00pm, I was informed that the oral presentation of the trial scheduled for Tuesday, February 11 was suspended due to …

On 30 September 2013, Cuban punk rocker Gorki Luis Aguila Carrasco, lead singer of the band Porno para Ricardo, was arrested. On a citation for summary judgement dated 27 January 2014, Gorki has now been called to attend a summary trial on 11 February 2014. Exiled Cuban bloggers and reporters …

Newsletter from Article 19, published on article19.org on 14 November 2013: Art, in any form, constitutes a key medium through which information and ideas are imparted and received. Artist Alert, launched by ARTICLE 19 in 2008, highlights cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has …

Activists on social networks convoked a “tweet-protest” on 1 November 2013, in solidarity with Cuban dissident rapper and political prisoner Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga, known best as “El Critico” form the hip-hop duo The Unwanted Children (Los Hijos Que Nadie Quiso). The musician was violently arrested by the political police …

Newsletter from Article 19, published on article19.org on 21 October 2013: Art, in any form, constitutes a key medium through which information and ideas are imparted and received. Artist Alert, launched by ARTICLE 19 in 2008, highlights cases of artists around the world whose right to freedom of expression has …

The 41-year-old Cuban pianist and bandleader Robertico Carcassés has been suspended “indefinitely” from performing in Cuba after he improvised lyrics calling for direct presidential elections, freedom of information and the end of the embargo during a televised concert on 12 September in the Cuban capital, Havana. Many of Cuba’s most popular …

Writer and blogger Ángel Santiesteban Prats has been sentenced to five years in prison for alleged trespassing and assault on the basis of an apparently flawed trial, wrote The Writers in Prison Committee of PEN International on 22 February 2013. Ángel Santiesteban Prats is an award-winning writer and author of …

The BBC reported on 8 August 2012 that several Cuban radio stations confirm they no longer face restrictions on playing music by exiles.   The BBC-reporter Sarah Rainsford wrote that the Cuban state-run radio had declared that previously forbidden Cuban-American musical performers such as Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Willy …

Julito and El Primario, two hip-hop musicians who have popularized songs defiantly against the Cuban government and who started a label called Sin Censura Records (Without Censorship Records), were arrested at an anti-government protest. 21-year-old Julito (real name: Julio León Fonseca), and 22-year-old El Primario (real name: Rodolfo Ramírez Hernández) …

  Songs of the famous Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés have been banned on Cubas nationwide network of radio stations from 26 September 2011, reported Café Fuerte. Pablo Milanes has been a symbol of Cuban revolutionary culture for decades, but he now seems to have ended his days of glory in …