Cuba declines to renew journalists’ credentials

? Cuban press authorities have told the Havana correspondents for the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and a major Mexican newspaper that they can no longer report from the island.

The Chicago Tribune said correspondent Gary Marx, based in the country since 2002, was told Wednesday that his stories were too negative. His press credentials were not renewed during an annual process, and he and his family were given 90 days to leave Cuba, the newspaper said.

The Mexican newspaper El Universal said Cesar Gonzalez Calero, its Havana reporter since 2003, was told this week his credentials would not be renewed. Authorities told him his reporting was “not the most convenient for the Cuban government,” the reporter said, adding he would be allowed to remain in Cuba as the husband of a Spanish journalist.

The British Broadcasting Corp. was “talking to the authorities in Havana about the status of its Cuba correspondent after his accreditation was withdrawn,” spokeswoman Karen Rosine said Friday in a statement from London. Without naming correspondent Stephen Gibbs, Rosine said he “remains in Cuba, pending the outcome of these discussions.”