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The Hour of Cuba, the independent journalism outlet based in Camagüey, received the Civil Rights Defender of the Year 2026 award, presented by the Swedish organization Civil Rights Defenders (CRD), becoming the first press outlet in the Americas to receive this honor.
The CRD justified the recognition for the "exceptional resilience and courage in defending freedom of expression, independent and free journalism, and democracy" demonstrated by the media outlet over nearly 14 years of journalistic work from within the island.
The award is shared with Netgazeti, an independent digital media outlet from Georgia founded in 2010, whose co-founder Mzia Amaglobeli is currently in prison for practicing journalism under the authoritarian government of that country.
Considered one of the most important awards in Europe in the field of human rights, the prize has previously recognized Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, who received it in 2014, eight years before being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The only organization in the Americas that had received it before was the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, dedicated to recording political prisoners, in 2023.
The award ceremony is scheduled for May 18 in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, but the director of the media outlet, Henry Constantin, will not be able to attend: the Cuban authorities have prohibited him from leaving the country since 2019.
Constantin has a long history of repression due to his journalistic work.
In January 2026, he was detained three times in less than two weeks, including an incident where he was held incommunicado for 44 hours and another where he was arrested along with collaborator Alejandra García.
The media outlet has recorded more than 30 arrests of its journalists, nearly a hundred summonses for collaborators, family members, and contacts, prohibitions on leaving the country, home searches, and the confiscation of work equipment.
Upon learning of the award, Constantin stated: "La Hora de Cuba has received many 'awards' before this one: over 40 arrests, hundreds of police summons and interrogations, thousands of threats, several defamation campaigns, a few travel bans from Cuba for years, continuous surveillance, vandalism against my house, physical violence, and police accusations."
"Those are the awards that the Cuban regime has given us for sharing the truth for nearly 14 years and from within the island."
He added, "But this is a different award, one that does not seek to silence us, isolate us, or force us to emigrate; on the contrary, it is an award that we truly appreciate with all our hearts, an award that brings us joy and strengthens us to continue sharing freedom and information from deep within the country."
La Hora de Cuba operates with its entire management and editorial team based on the island, unlike most independent Cuban media that work from exile.
From Camagüey, the media covered the protests of November 27, 2020, the demonstrations of July 11, 2021, and the severe energy crisis affecting the city, with power outages lasting over twenty hours a day.
Iris Mariño, the deputy director of the outlet, also spoke about the award: "For me, this award means above all that fear cannot be an obstacle in your life. Living under a dictatorship and having been subjected by the repressive apparatus to various acts of psychological, verbal, and even physical violence has not defined my everyday life. Every repressive action I have experienced, every obstacle has made me desire freedom and democracy for Cuba even more and to work towards that goal."
Recognition comes at a politically significant time: Sweden is the European Union country that actively promotes the review of that organization's Cooperation Agreement with the Cuban regime, adding a geopolitical dimension to the award.
Henry Constantin has been the national representative to the Press and Information Freedom Commission of the Inter-American Press Association for nine years, where he prepares the annual reports on the situation of the press in Cuba.
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