Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez was astounded this week by
President Barack Obama’s decision to respond a written questionnaire Sánchez submitted
to the White House. Still recovering from bruises left by a recent vicious attack
by state security agents, she told CPJ from her home in
A basement in the
gray, Gothic heart of the
Last night’s scenario was breathtaking: a circular hall with high ceilings, marble columns, tables draped with heavy tablecloths and soft bouquets, and journalism personalities elegant in cocktail dresses and tuxedos. And poised behind a wood podium, a black screen silently reminding all those present of who was not there.
I share with my fellow Cuban independent journalists the
drunkenness of writing freely under a totalitarian dictatorship; of
experiencing the catharsis of denouncing the regime’s violations; of feeling
useful to my people knowing that, in the long run, what I write will contribute
to a better future.
At the end of the
1990s, Cuban dissidents sought out different media to disseminate the reality
of the island. Reports on violations by a government that proclaims itself a
human rights’ defender begin to circulate around the world, damaging the image
that the socialist state wants to project to the rest of the world. This is how
a movement of independent journalists is born on the island.
Graciela González-Degard is 72 years old. She has salt-and-pepper
hair, long elegant hands, soft manners reminiscent of another era, and a bad
knee that she blames on age. Once a Catholic nun, Graciela moved to the
Cuban dissidents--both on and off the island--have been
blasting the news of Víctor Rolando Arroyo's 12-day hunger strike. In a matter
of hours, CPJ received three concerned e-mails from
Why write a blog? My
reasons might not be convincing, but to me, they are enough. The most important
paper in my country is Granma, the official
organ of the Communist Party in
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