Cuban blogger and dissident Yoani Sánchez challenged the island's state monopoly on the media by launching an independent digital newspaper on Wednesday, in a country where Internet access is restricted and the flow of information is controlled by the government.
Financed through donations which reached the amount of $150,000 dollars, the newspaper "14ymedio.com" was launched on May 21 with a critical focus which opens a space for thinkers who wish to express their nonconformity against the government of Raúl Castro who since the government of his predecessor, Fidel Castro, has considered the opposition as "mercenaries at the service of foreign powers".
"14ymedio is the evolution of a personal adventure towards a collective project," is the phrase on the cover of the digital newspaper, focusing its first issue on a wide array of subjects like politics, culture, health and even sports.
Readers can read, on the website's cover, a report by Víctor Ariel González, titled "Red Dawn: Havana is killing out there", which references the violence in the island's capital.
Sánchez' idea is to open a free space to severely criticize Castro's government, criticism that she led herself through publications on her own blog "Generación Y".
The publication doesn't have an office in Havana or an email address, and journalists are limited to texting from cellphones. The stories are uploaded to the internet through WiFi access in hotels and public areas, according to Reuters.
In Cuba, only 2.6 inhabitants, out of a population of 11.2 million, have Internet access and most of them can only access websites managed by the government, according to Reuters.
Castro's Government Blocks Independent Digital Newspaper
Breaking news revealed that the government of President Raúl Castro started to block the new independent news website. According to El País, visitors to Yoani Sánchez' website from computers in Cuba are redirected to a website filled with documents that discredit and smear the blogger.
Through her Twitter account, Sánchez deplored the government block and said she was able to enter the website through a program that allows her to surf anonymously.
#Cuba Saludos también para @CafeFuertecom @el_pais @PenultimosDias @havanatimes y todos los bloggers de https://t.co/BNEkd12qVq
— 14ymedio (@14ymedio) Mayo 21, 2014
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