PARIS, Feb 24 (Reuters) - A Paris-based press freedom watchdog said Cuban police had on Wednesday arrested a journalist after warning him not to cover a demonstration by human rights activists on the communist-ruled island.
The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) organisation said Jesus Labrador Arias of the independent Cuba Press news agency in Mazanillo, Granma province, was arrested by state security agents at dawn.
RSF said in a letter to Cuban Interior Minister Abelardo Colome Ibarra that the arrest was a ``serious infringement of freedom of the press'' and called for Arias's release.
A number of Cuban and foreign journalists have run afoul of Cuban authorities in recent months. In January, RSF reported that a Dutch radio journalist was expelled after being accused of giving money to an alleged ``counter-revolutionary group.'' At least two other Cuban reporters were detained in January, RSF said.
A new law passed last week in Cuba established jail terms of up to 20 years for anyone judged to be ``collaborating'' with the U.S. government in its economic embargo against Cuba or in its efforts to subvert one-party communist rule there.
The law appeared intended to curb the activities of dissidents and of independent journalists who sent abroad articles critical of President Fidel Castro's government.
19:49 02-24-99
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