The Cuban government has banned independent journalist Raul Rivero from traveling to New York to receive a prestigious journalism award from Columbia University next week.

``This action by Cuba is a vivid reminder of the sorts of obstacles that journalists around the world encounter in the pursuit of their profession, said Tom Goldstein, dean of Columbia's Journalism School.

Rivero told The Herald in a telephone interview from Havana that officials at Cuba's Interior Ministry, in charge of domestic security, told him Thursday his request for permission to travel abroad had been denied.

Columbia awarded Rivero a Maria Moors Cabot special citation for his reporting from Cuba in the face of arrests and harassments. Cuba denied him permission to travel abroad for other journalism ceremonies in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Rivero said his daughter Cristina, who lives in Miami, would represent him at the award dinner Wednesday at Columbia's Lowe Library.

The Cabot prizes, awarded annually since 1939 for excellence in reporting about Latin America, went this year to Jorge Zepeda Patterson of the Guadalajara, Mexico, newspaper Publico; Linda Robinson of U.S. News and World Report; and Juan O. Tamayo of The Miami Herald.

Special citations were awarded to Rivero and James McClatchey, publisher of McClatchey newspapers.