Yoani Sanchez Publishes Her Online Newspaper

HAVANA TIMES — Cuba’s internationally famous blogger Yoani Sanchez posted the first edition today of her online newspaper “14ymedio”, a publication with which she aims to “break the information monopoly” on the island and “accompany the necessary transition.”

The newspaper (www.14ymedio.com) went online this morning and opened fire with a report on violence in Havana and an interview with imprisoned writer Angel Santiesteban.

However, dpa reports that the site was immediately censured from Cuban servers which redirect it to another site set up by the government where pro-Castro intelectuals and simpathizers attack Sanchez.

“It’s a bad strategy of the  government to redirect our web site, there is nothing more attractive than what’s forbidden,” said Sanchez on her twitter account.

Sanchez says her paper aspires to be plural, publishing general information on the island, which focuses not only on politics but also with photo galleries, daily updates, blogs, culture and calendar, notes dpa news.

One of the “major challenges” for the new newspaper will be to reach the Cuban population due to very poor Internet access from the island, states its creators on the Quienes Somos (About Us) page.

Yoani Sánchez is one of the most familiar faces of Cuban dissidents. The blogger and journalist 38, philologist, started her blog “Generation Y” in 2007, which she continues today, presenting a critical look at the reality of the island.

Sanchez blogging has earned her several hundred thousand dollars in prizes. She is better known outside of Cuba than within because the government controlled media has only attacked her, criticizing her ties with the US Interests Section and other anti-Castro politicians around the globe, but without publishing or discussing her acrid portrayals of Cuban life.