MADRID -- (AP) -- Cuban dissident writer Raul Rivero has won a prestigious Spanish journalism award for his work as a journalist reporting on his native country, where he spent two years in jail on charges of trying to undermine President Fidel Castro's government.
Rivero, who is 62 and moved to Madrid in 2005 after being released from prison, won one of several Ortega y Gasset prizes that were announced Wednesday. The awards, now in their 24th year, are given by Spain's top-selling newspaper, El Pais.
The jury voted unanimously to give Rivero the prize for journalism in recognition of his "tenacious and committed battle for journalistic freedom'' in Cuba.
It praised Rivero, who is also a poet, for a life's work that is "very original and of extraordinary literary value."
Rivero was among 75 independent journalists, opposition politicians and other activists who were arrested in 2003.
Other prizes were given out in categories such as photography and investigative reporting. The awards are named for the late Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset.
Each carries a $20,000 stipend and a sculpture by the late Spanish artist Eduardo Chillida.
The award ceremony is scheduled for May 9 in Madrid.
