14ymedio, Havana, 27 December 2016 – Cuban faces of 2016: The journalist José Ramírez Pantoja starred this year in one of the most publicized cases of censorship within the official press. The reporter was fired from his job at Radio Holguin after being accused of printing on his personal blog the words of Karina Marron, vice president of the official newspaper Granma, who expressed concern at a union meeting about a possible social explosion like the 1994 Maleconazo.
Since the ruling, Aixa Hevia, vice president of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC) accused Pantoja of positioning himself to be able to move to the Miami media. Despite the appeal made by the journalist, the Municipal Court of Holguin ratified his dismissal. The National Ethics Commission of UPEC also ruled against him.
Ramírez Pantoja says that the injustice committed against him has led him to consider the need for a journalism that is more serious and committed to people’s needs.
