Raúl Rivero

In 1999 Rivero was awarded Columbia University's Maria Moors Cabot prize for International Journalism.

The arrest and imprisonment of Rivero was later defended by Cuban writer and culture minister Abel Prieto who argued that Rivero "was not arrested for his views, but for receiving US funding for his collaboration with a country that has besieged our island.

"[5] Rivero asserted, in prison interrogations as well as in public, that all the funds which he received consisted of fees for his articles, paid by the publishing media, not by governments or political organizations.

His account of his life and his treatment by the Cuban government is given in his book "Proof of Contact".

[6] In November 2004 he was released following international pressure on Cuba and subsequently relocated to Spain, and was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.