MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuban blogger joints the list of World Press Freedom Heroes

It’s not sure Yoani Sanchez will be able to receive the honor in Vienna

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez said this weekend that she feels “very responsible” following the International Press Institute’s decision to choose her as one of its 60 World Press Freedom Heroes.

“The word that sums up how I feel now is responsibility. Very responsible for what this means, being on a list with people who are risking their lives and their reputations as well in many parts of the world,” Sanchez, who received a text message telling her the news about the award announced in Vienna on Friday, said.

The blogger, who turned 35 on Saturday, joins the list of 60 journalists awarded prizes since 2000 by the Vienna-based IPI, which has described her as a “harsh critic of the reality in Cuba,” while highlighting her work to remind “the world about the Caribbean island’s restrictions on free speech.”

Sanchez, author of the “Generacion Y” blog since 2007, said the IPI honour included an invitation and “in theory I should be in Vienna on Sept. 13 to take part in the ceremony.”

“There’s not much time but I’m going to apply to see if I can go,” said the blogger, whom the Cuban government on several occasions has denied permission to leave the island when invited to receive prizes and take part in international events.

Yoani Sanchez, who also expressed her gratitude for the prize with an audio message on her Twitter account, won Spain’s 2008 Ortega y Gasset Prize for Digital Journalism and in 2009 received an honourable mention for the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University in New York.

In its announcement IPI said that Sanchez’s blog, Generation Y, “is an acerbic critique of life in Cuba, and a telling reminder to the world of the restraints on free speech and expression on the Caribbean island”.

Sanchez, a graduate of Havana University, left Cuba for Switzerland in 2002, but returned two years later. On her return, she set up, along with a group of other Cubans, the magazine “Consenso” as a forum for reflection and debate.

In 2007, spurred by what she saw as a growing repressive climate in her homeland, she launched her blog, Generation Y. Composed of reflections on daily life, politics and culture in Castro’s Cuba, the blog today boasts a readership of more than a million.

In early 2008, Sanchez reported that the site may have been targeted by government censors. In April 2008, the site became unavailable in Cuba.

Since then, Sanchez has resorted to extreme and creative measures to keep her blog alive. In a country where internet access is severely restricted and prohibitively expensive, Sanchez often poses as a tourist to access the internet, emailing her entries to friends outside the country who then publish them online.

Sanchez has been refused permission to travel outside of Cuba at least six times in the past two years alone, despite international acclaim for her blog. In 2008, “TIME Magazine” named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people, noting her “feisty dedication to the truth,” and pointing out that “under the nose of a regime that has never tolerated dissent, Sánchez has practiced what paper-bound journalists in her country cannot: freedom of speech.” She has also received the Ortega y Gasset Prize, Spain’s highest award for digital journalism; the Maria Moors Cabot Prize from Columbia University; and in 2009, TIME Magazine named her blog among the 25 Best Blogs of 2009.

In her own country, however, Sanchez has repeatedly faced harassment by authorities. In November 2009, the Daily Telegraph reported that she was beaten by a group of unidentified men while on her way to a peaceful protest. According to the article, after the attack, she was dumped “again in the middle of the street, (…) leaving her bruised, scared and sobbing.”

Sanchez says she has not been able to see her own blog since 2007. She reports on her blog that she is under continuous surveillance by state security agents. On 24 May, Sanchez’s blog reported that her name had been announced on Cuba’s state-run Roundtable program, “mixed with concepts such as “cyber-terrorism,” “cyber-commandos” and “media war.”

“To be mentioned in a negative way in the most official program on television is, for any Cuban, the confirmation of her social death,” says Sanchez in her blog.
However, Sanchez refuses to be silenced. “If you are insulted by the mediocre, the opportunists, if you are slandered by the employees of the powerful but dying machinery, take it as a compliment,” she says on her blog.