As the United Nations' May 3 World Press Freedom Day approaches, it might be appropriate to consider that Cuba has the largest number of journalists in prison of any country in the world. The 28 journalists suffering in Cuban prisons is two more imprisoned journalists than in runnerup China, which has 100 times the population of Cuba. And they’re imprisoned in Cuba simply because of what they’ve reported.

Some of the 28 will surely die before completing their sentences of up to 27 years because they're already aging and sick.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, who ordered the arrests and one-day trials of the journalists and 47 other dissidents on March 18, 2003, is himself 77 and would be 104 when the last prisoners completed their sentences. They were accused and convicted of working with the United States to undermine the government.

The average age of the imprisoned journalists is 51. Three are in their 60s. One of them, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, 62, suffers from colon cancer. Another, Carmelo Diaz Fernández, 66, has complained of heart problems. Héctor Maseda, 60, is suffering from a skin disease. They are serving sentences of 20, 16 and 20 years, respectively.

That Castro fears the independent journalists is evident by the fact that undercover agents from state security infiltrated the movement. Espinosa Chepe, Díaz Fernández and Maseda were among the 18 independent journalists who participated in a clandestine workshop I gave in Havana Dec. 16, 2002. Three others later identified themselves as undercover agents. One of them, Manuel David Orrio, had been passing himself off as an independent journalist for 12 years.

Orrio orchestrated the chain of events that led to the arrests and shed his cover to be a key witness in some of the trials where the independent journalists were sentenced.

Since I ran out of time before I could discuss ethics, Orrio said he would lead an ethics workshop himself. He asked the U.S. Interests Section if he could use the official residence of Chief of Mission James C. Cason for the workshop, since he planned to invite 60 journalists.

The workshop was held March 14, 2003. Four days later, when world media were focused on the invasion of Iraq, Castro said that the chief of mission had gone too far in opening his residence to dissidents and ordered the arrests.

Raul Rivero, 57, the best known of the imprisoned journalists and one of the few with formal journalism training, suffers from a circulatory problem and has dropped 40 pounds. Rivero is serving a 20-year sentence. Manuel Vázquez Portal, 52, a well-known poet and journalist who is serving an 18-year sentence, has been moved to a prison hospital several times. He suffers from emphysema. Normando Hernández, at 32 the youngest imprisoned journalist, suffers from stomach problems. He is currently in solitary confinement because he refuses to share space with common criminals.

Most of the journalists have been purposely confined in prisons far from their homes, up to 600 miles in some cases, which makes visits from family members – usually every three months – arduous and costly. These visits are essential as the relatives bring food, sanitary supplies and medicines; otherwise the prisoners go without when prison supplies run out. Many bring mattresses and bedding which some prisons lack.

Those family members who speak out against the treatment of the prisoners are subject to harassment by government officials. It has included threats to place their school children in disciplinary centers, in effect, taking them away from the parents.

When the arrests were made in March of last year, there were 116 independent journalists registered for the distance-learning course offered by the International Media Center at Florida International University. The center had expected some dropouts and no further registrations. But the opposite has occurred: none dropped out and 16 additional journalists registered. All appear determined to fill the void caused by the imprisonments.

"I feel more committed than ever since the wave of arrests last year because this system has demonstrated to the world that it is more unjust and violates more human rights with every passing day," one independent journalist told us.

Another independent journalist reported that authorities have taken his telephone, which was illegally installed, since dissidents cannot obtain legal telephones. "That makes my job harder because colleagues all over the island used to call in their stories," he said. "But my job has not ended and I'll be here until the final act, the restoration of democracy in Cuba."

A third independent journalist said news sources are increasingly reluctant to talk to her. "When I have to check out something, those who know me will talk, but they insist I change the details so they can't be identified," she said.

The independent journalists form what they call agencies, really informal groups. Most of their articles are filed to Internet sites outside the island for posting. The articles mainly deal problems of everyday life in Cuba, the type of stories not available to the foreign correspondents based in Havana.

They are not recognized as journalists by the Cuban government because they lack journalism degrees and do not work for recognized news media, all of which are controlled by the state.

Maybe this legalism helps to convince some journalists outside of Cuba that their independent colleagues in Cuba must have done something wrong. It is not a wrong they committed but a right they exercised: that of a free press.