According to Agence France Presse, Jailed Cuban journalist Raul Rivero was awarded the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize on Monday. Rivero, a former employee of Cuba's state news agency, resigned in 1988 to start his own independent agency and a journalists' association. He was arrested in a March 2003 crackdown on dissidents and ordered imprisoned along with 25 other journalists for undermining "the independence or territorial integrity of the state." UNESCO director general Koichiro Matsuura said that the prize was "a tribute to Raul Rivero's brave and longstanding commitment to independent reporting" and called on Cuban authorities to release Rivero. The prize, started in 1997 in honour of murdered Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano, carries a purse of 25,000 dollars (19,800 euros) and is announced each year on May 3, designated World Press Freedom Day, writes AFP.

Source: AFP