Henry Constantín has been invited to receive the award in Sweden, but he will not be able to travel because Cuban authorities are keeping him under ‘regulation’.
14ymedio, Havana, April 29, 2026 / The magazine La Hora de Cuba [Cuba’s Hour] was awarded the Civil Rights Defender Award 2026 by the Swedish organization Civil Rights Defenders (CRD) on Wednesday. The award recognizes the publication, directed by Henry Constantin, for its “exceptional resilience and courage in defending freedom of expression, free and independent journalism, and democracy.” The Georgian platform Netgazeti was also among the recipients of the award .
As CRD highlights in its press release, La Hora de Cuba “operates in one of the most closed media environments in the world.” It notes that on the island, “independent journalism is, in practice, criminalized,” yet the platform works “immersed in the reality it reports.” Similarly, the organization continues, “they document arbitrary arrests, political trials, and how repression permeates daily life—stories that state media do not tell.”
On its website, the NGO highlights the work the media outlet has carried out for more than a decade, in which “hundreds of people have contributed, from journalists, artists and photographers. Many have been forced to stop collaborating after being arrested, interrogated or receiving threats against their families. Others have left the country, but some remain.”
“Many have been forced to stop cooperating after being arrested, interrogated, or receiving threats against their families.”
Henry Constantín, who has suffered several arrests for his work leading La Hora de Cuba – just two in 2026 – has stated that his media outlet has received many “awards” before this one: “More than 40 arrests, hundreds of police summonses and interrogations, thousands of threats, several defamation campaigns, a few bans on leaving Cuba for years, continuous surveillance, vandalism against my house, physical violence and police accusations.
The communicator asserted that “these are the rewards that the Cuban regime has given us for sharing the truth for almost 14 years, the same number of years that a diverse team of people has accumulated with whom I have been able to build and maintain this media outlet in the extremely harsh conditions of rural Cuba.”
Regarding the Swedish award, he said the team is deeply grateful, as it “strengthens us to continue sharing freedom and information from deep within the country, from Camagüey and every city where our team operates. Thanks to the dozens of Cubans who have worked with La Hora de Cuba over the years , thanks to the thousands of people who read us daily, and thanks to my family, always by my side.”
He also said that, “for La Hora de Cuba, this award means increased visibility and also greater responsibility. People as far away as Sweden, who work with activists and journalists in difficult situations around the world, believe that we at La Hora de Cuba deserve it. That means we must take our work even more seriously.”
“I don’t plan to leave Cuba. I’m going to continue working here, doing journalism for the freedom of Cuba.”
The award ceremony is scheduled for May 18 in Stockholm, Sweden. Although Constantín—who received the 2021 Press Freedom Award from the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA)—has been invited to attend, he will be unable to travel because Cuban authorities have kept him under travel restrictions since 2019, prohibiting him from leaving the country unless he emigrates, an option he rejects. He reaffirmed this stance after his latest arrest: “I don’t plan to leave Cuba. I’m going to continue working here, doing journalism for freedom in Cuba.”
For Iris Mariño, deputy director of La Hora de Cuba and who was under house arrest for participating in the Island-wide 11 July 2021 protests, the award “signifies 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 been the defining factor in my daily life. Every repressive action I have experienced, every obstacle, has made me desire freedom and democracy for Cuba even more and work towards achieving it.”
Regarding the Georgian media outlet Netgatzeti, CRD points out that one of its founders, Mzia Amaglobeli, has been in prison since last year for practicing journalism in a country that has been warned to be on the verge of a dictatorship, following the Georgian Dream party’s rise to power in 2012.
Mzia Amaglobeli has been in prison since last year for practicing journalism in a country that has been warned is on the verge of a dictatorship.
The award, a benchmark in Europe in the area of human rights, has been given since 2013 to those who defend civil rights in restrictive environments.
La Hora de Cuba is the first media outlet in the Americas to receive the recognition and the second organization to obtain it on the continent, after the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, dedicated to the registration of detentions for political reasons and free legal defense, won it in 2023.
Previous recipients of this award include Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatsky, [see also] who received it in 2014, eight years before being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. At the time, he was imprisoned awaiting trial for “smuggling and financing actions that violated public order.” The human rights defender was sentenced to 10 years in prison but was pardoned last December, along with 122 other political prisoners, by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Translator’s note: Readers are encouraged to scroll through the couple of decades of posts by (and about) Henry Constantin on this site.
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