Yoani lives with her husband, son and a large, friendly black-and-white dog. They occupy a 19th-floor apartment of a drab, weather-stained 1960s Soviet-style tower block behind several ministry buildings in the west of Havana. However, it is almost luxurious by the standards of the capital: it is relatively large and airy, boasts two bedrooms, and its tiny internal courtyard is crammed with tropical greenery. The living-room walls are lined with books. Many of the volumes are brought into the country by individuals, to be loaned out as part of the increasingly prevalent system of “private libraries”, a means of breaking the state’s monopoly on publishing and distribution.

Yoani is now 35 years old, and her parents were part of the generation of the 1960s, raised in the first decade following “the Triumph of the Revolution”. They shared the faith that Che Guevara’s “New Man” would combine with the state communism adopted by Fidel Castro and his regime to create a better world. Yoani recalls how they laboured long hours for scant pay, over and beyond their jobs. “They sacrificed their lives to build a socialist heaven for their children,” she recalls.

By the time the Russians pulled out in the 1990s and the islanders were facing up to the stringencies of what Fidel Castro termed “a special period in times of peace” — one that translated into further shortages, along with still less freedom of speech and movement — Yoani’s parents finally lost faith in this promised paradise. “They changed overnight. My father stopped being a Communist Party militant. My mother was no longer a leader in the communist youth movement. They became completely disillusioned, and that was the world I grew up in.”
This atmosphere led Yoani to look abroad for opportunities. Unlike many, however, she did not aim for Miami and life as a Cuban exile. Instead, she taught in Europe, spending two years in Switzerland, where she studied computer science and realised how powerful the new technologies could be.

On her return to Cuba in 2004, she put her mastery of the medium to practical use. She opened a web portal and with others began publishing online blogs. Since only 5 per cent of Cubans, almost exclusively officially sanctioned state employees, are currently allowed direct internet access, Yoani started using the large tourist hotels where business centres are intended for the use of resident foreign tourists.

Cuba has no internet cafes and the libraries do not offer online access. A small number of “dissident” Cuban writers rely on weekly access of a few hours a week, granted via foreign embassies. Yoani is determined that if she is not permitted access to the internet in her living-room, she should at least be able to be free to walk into the only public centres available. She regards it as her right, as a Cuban: “I prefer visiting hotels and confronting the system rather than just bypassing it by using the embassies. Anyone who does this automatically enters the system via servers in the countries of origin, rather than over a Cuban server.” When she was denied access on one occasion, she filmed the event on her phone and posted it online, immediately attracting 50,000 hits.

It was after Yoani took the decision in 2007 to put her name to her blogs that trouble with the regime began. As often happens with “dissidents” in Cuba, she has been accused of being a CIA agent, and more recently of being part of a foreign-instigated “cyberwar” against the regime. This has had predictable repercussions on her personal life: “I don’t consider myself paranoid, but people have been encouraged to ostracise me,” she says with a shrug. She says she can live with the constant surveillance of the building where she lives, but is worried about what might happen to her son. A star school pupil, he could be subjected to exclusion from tertiary education on spurious (non-academic) grounds. This would be another example of the way in which parents are punished through their children, by the unexplained refusal of university admission.

Occasionally the harassment has been more brutally direct. Yoani was physically assaulted in November 2009 and February 2010, when she was going to a meeting of the “damas de blanco” — the women in white — who protested silently each week about the notorious detention of 75 journalists, writers and human rights activists arrested during the “Black Spring” of 2003. She paused to show us how she was held down on the floor of a taxi with her knee pressed against her sternum, causing maximum pain with least visible effect. She also showed us how this has left her unable to turn her head from side to side, the apparent consequence of pressure on her cervical vertebrae. “They prefer methods that cause lasting pain but don’t produce an immediate show of blood.” She pointed out how counterproductive these violent acts of aggression can be: “They had the opposite effect to that intended — there was a surge in support for us, and the attacks only made me more determined.”

Apart from instances of intimidation, the main restriction Yoani currently faces is that of not being able to travel abroad. In 2009, she was refused permission to leave the country in order to collect the prestigious Moors Cabot award for freedom of speech from Columbia University in New York. More recently, she has been denied a visa to travel to collect prizes in Germany and Spain for her work. “They took my passport, and instead of giving me a visa, simply failed to return it. They do not need to refuse to [grant me a visa], they just do not give [my passport] back. So I cannot leave to go anywhere outside the island,” she adds.

Beyond what affects her personally, what most incenses Yoani is the amount of doublespeak and hypocrisy that the Cuban authorities indulge in. Showing us her ration card, she remarks that, for example, each Cuban is allocated six kilos of sugar per month. This is not because it grows in such abundance on the island (Cuba in fact now has to import from Brazil what for so long used to be its main crop) but because of the quantity of calories it contains. In this way the country avoids appearing poverty-stricken in terms of global statistics. Above all, the revolution would face ultimate shame and failure if Cuba were shown as a country where malnutrition affected the population.

Yoani relates the surge in street crime to the current economic crisis. “Take the crime wave there has been here,” she continues. “It hardly receives a mention, even in the [state-owned] media. The government’s attitude is: if you don’t talk about something, then it doesn’t exist. The commonest crimes, like robberies and muggings, are rarely recorded. The police are complicit in this, for fear it could reflect badly on them; all state employees are constantly looking over their shoulder. We even hear, for example, about hospitals equipped with the latest technology, but not that they are lacking such basic materials as sheets or thermometers.”
Yoani is well aware that such criticisms are bound to make life harder for her in Cuba. But she insists that she is doing nothing wrong or “unpatriotic” and that visibility and being completely open about what she is doing are her best defence. “A blog is a way of talking to yourself. At the same time, you have to be completely transparent and honest with yourself to be able to explain to anyone who was not born in Cuba what this society is like.”

There are now at least a hundred “alternative bloggers” in Cuba, despite the lack of official access to the internet. It is estimated that her own Generación Y blogs are translated into 21 languages, but she has also moved on to the next stage. “I’m really proud that I can reach 102,000 people on Twitter, whereas Fidel only has 93,000 followers. That’s because his tweet is really boring.” Bringing an apparently new word into the Cuban vocabulary, she adds: “But Raúl no es twittero.”

She is confident that the Castro regime cannot keep the lid on the free circulation of information on the island: “The information monopoly is being broken thanks to satellite phones, the internet, all the new technological developments. More people are becoming aware of them every day, it’s something you can’t prevent.”

Yoani herself helps promote this spread of the use of new technologies by running courses on using the internet and Twitter, and on how to create new blogs and websites. She insists again that she has every right to do so, and that this is in no sense a “war” on the Cuban government. The library she runs from home is to loosen the state’s stranglehold on the publishing and circulation of books. “I know many people have sent me hundreds of them, but not one has ever arrived,” she tells us.

Like many dissidents — the last of the Black Spring 75 has only just gone into involuntary exile — she is fiercely Cuban, and prefers to be able to live in her home country. Despite the risks to which she is now exposed, she insists she has no regrets: “I am living the life I have chosen to live.”

We all need to leave the apartment at the same time, to go our separate ways. We agree to split up as we depart, in order to avoid attracting the attention of anyone who might be watching outside. However, this is Cuba and we have to wait ten minutes for the lift to arrive. We end up sharing it for the long drop down to street level. We emerge at the same time, studiously avoiding each other, and without bidding goodbye. Yoani puts on her sunglasses before we go out into the sunlight.

Amanda Hopkinson is visiting professor of literary translation at both Manchester University and City University, London. She has published many books on Latin American culture and translated more from the Spanish, Portuguese and French
Nick Caistor is a freelance writer. He teaches journalism at UAE. Reaktion Books will publish his book Fidel Castro: a critical life next year

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One of the most prominent free-speech Cuban activists, Sánchez arrived in Brazil on Sunday (17 February) for a round of conferences and events in the northeastern state of Bahia and federal capital Brasília.

On Monday 18 February, Sánchez was at Feira de Santana (in Bahia) where she would attend a presentation of a documentary about the Cuban regime, but the violence of the protestors caused the event to be cancelled.

The demonstrators accused Sánchez’s blog Generación Y of spreading anti-Cuban propaganda. Some of the protesters went as far as denouncing her as a representative of imperialism and a CIA agent.

Senator Eduardo Suplicy from the ruling Workers’ Party had to intervene and ask for the protesters to ease down their attacks on the Cuban blogger. Security measures have been increased for Sánchez since then.

“I regret the situation got to this point, because I’m a person who uses words, I don’t use guns”, said Sánchez, who nevertheless praised the “freedom” and “plurality” she found in Brazil. In response to protests during her visit, the blogger also said that she was “happy to visit a country where people can speak their minds freely.”

Sánchez is on her first trip abroad after the Cuban government eased travel regulations for its citizens. Before that, she had being denied a travel permit for more than 20 times.

During her 80-day tour, the activist also plans to visit the Czech Republic, Spain, Mexico, United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Peru, amongst other countries.

READ INDEX ON CENSORSHIP’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH YOANI SÁNCHEZ HERE

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The Guardian Journalism Award

This award recognises journalism of dogged determination and bravery

Ahmet Altan/Taraf (Turkey)

As editor-in-chief of independent daily newspaper Taraf, Ahmet Altan bravely takes on the Turkish establishment by challenging the army’s role in civilian affairs, chiselling at enduring taboos and publishing allegations of military misconduct. Taraf manages to regularly upstage rivals and dominate the news agenda with its commitment to freedom of information and defence of democracy. It was instrumental in uncovering the “sledgehammer” plot to overthrow the Turkish government in 2009, a story that hit international headlines. In 2008, Altan came under pressure to reveal sources and hand over material connected to the paper’s coverage of an attack against a military unit. Despite being charged in 2008 with “denigrating Turkishness” for publishing an article on the Armenian genocide, Altan continues his work, ignoring fears for his own safety and the safety of his colleagues. Taraf stands out in the Turkish media landscape for its fearlessness, independence and editorial integrity.

Al Ayyam (Yemen)

The popular Yemeni daily al Ayyam, based in Aden, is owned and edited by the Bashraheel family, who founded the paper in 1958. The paper provides critical coverage of the political scene combined with stories on social issues such as poverty and homelessness. In May 2009, Yemen’s information minister banned publication of al Ayyam and seven other papers on the grounds that they were “harming national unity” by reporting on deadly clashes between government troops and protesters demanding more resources for the country’s impoverished south. Al Ayyam delivery trucks were twice seized and set on fire by people the paper described as government sympathisers. On 15 July, Anis Ahmed Mansour Hamida, a reporter for al Ayyam, was sentenced to 14 months in jail. Campaigners regarded it as part of a major campaign by the authorities against the paper. “After applying indirect censorship, the authorities have gone to a new level in their harassment of this independent publication,” said Reporters Sans Frontières.

Suzanne Breen (Northern Ireland)

Suzanne Breen is northern editor for Dublin newspaper the Sunday Tribune. In April 2009, police officers arrived at Breen’s home, demanding to see her journalistic materials and threatening her with sanctions under the Terrorism Act 2000. Breen had interviewed a member of the Real IRA, which claimed to be responsible for killing two British soldiers and a former Provisional IRA member who had been revealed to be an agent for British security forces. Breen went to court to fight for her right to protect her sources and herself and on 18 June 2009, the Recorder of Belfast accepted her legal team’s argument that to give up the material would amount to a breach of her right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights. Breen noted: “We are not detectives or agents or informants for the state. We exist to put information into the public domain…It is up to reporters and photographers to fight for press freedom, not to capitulate at the first police phone call, letter, or other approach.”

Radio La Voz (Peru)

Operating in Bagua Grande in the Utcubamba Region of Peru, Radio La Voz was founded in 2007 by respected broadcast journalist Carlos Flores Borja and his sons. The aim of the station is to broadcast cultural programmes and information about environmental protection and human rights, fight political corruption and support local communities. Radio La Voz lost its licence in June 2009 after the government accused the station of ‘supporting violence against security forces’ when deadly clashes shook the area in mid-2009. Thirty-four people were killed as Amazonian communities protested about the opening up of huge tracts of land to foreign investment. To date no government representative has offered any evidence to support the veracity of its allegation against the radio station. Flores Borja says that La Voz was only doing its duty as an independent media source. He claims “the government took advantage of the moment to silence a voice critical of its policies”. On 16 February 2010, the case against Radio La Voz was dropped.

Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award

This award is given to lawyers or campaigners who have fought repression, or have struggled to change political climates and perceptions. Special attention is given to people using or establishing legal precedents to fight injustice

Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele (Ethiopia)

Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele wereimprisoned for two and half years for their efforts to ensure the 2005 Ethiopian elections were monitored legitimately, and for providing information and education about the election process to the electorate. They were convicted in April 2007 – alongside journalists, politicians, and civil society leaders – in a trial internationally regarded as a sham. The pair chose not to sign a letter of apology to the government, which would have secured them an early release; instead they contested the charges in court. After they were released from prison in March 2008 they continued to protest against the government’s moves to make the expression of dissent illegal, despite receiving threats. They are outstanding campaigners for social justice and the eradication of poverty, committed to bringing free speech, free press and free elections to the forefront of debate in Ethiopia.

Rashid Hajili (Azerbaijan)

Rashid Hajili is the chair of the Media Rights Institute in Azerbaijan, which monitors free expression and works for the protection of journalists and bloggers. In a country with an ever-worsening record on press freedom, Hajili is one of a small group of individuals who defends the rights of journalists and advocates for greater access to information. He has defended a number of prominent journalists, including imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev. A leading voice in the campaign for media law reform in the country, Hajili is a prolific writer and tireless campaigner, who has drafted legislation on protection of sources and broadcasting freedom. In December 2009, he worked with the organisation Article 19 on a case in the European Court of Human Rights to decriminalise defamation. “A country where freedom of speech is suppressed cannot have a positive image in the international community”, says Hajili. “Lack of tolerance to criticism means that democratic principles and values do not function in this country.”

Human Rights Centre Memorial (Russia/Chechnya)

Human Rights Centre Memorial is a Russian campaign group that monitors and highlights human rights violations. It brings criminal cases to court, compiling lists of missing people, and investigating kidnappings and disappearances. In July 2009, one of its most respected and courageous activists, former journalist Natalya Estemirova was abducted and brutally murdered. Estemirova worked in the Grozny office of Memorial, she was a tenacious investigator of torture and human rights abuses in Chechnya. In a region where the murders of journalists and human rights defenders often go unpunished, there is little hope of bringing the killers to justice. Following the murder, the organisation suspended its work in Chechnya, but it has since resumed operations despite the extreme dangers of working in the region. The organisation is committed to keeping Chechnya on the international human rights agenda. “Memorial and this group of activists have set the standard for human rights work in Russia”, says Holly Cartner of Human Rights Watch.

Charter 97 (Belarus)

Charter 97 is a campaign movement dedicated to principles of independence, freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. In Belarus its website is the main independent source of information on human rights and free expression activities in the country. The site comes under constant attack by hackers thought to be working for the country’s secret service and Charter 97 are regularly forced to move offices. Along with her team, Head of Press Natallia Radzina works to bring to light the cases of arrest, detention and harassment of critical journalists and human rights activists, despite being arrested on a regular basis. “Only because of such courageous and talented people like Natallia Radzina and the whole team of Charter 97, devoted to truth and morality in journalism, do we Belarusians and the whole world know what is happening in the last dictatorship in Europe”, says Natalia Koliada of the Belarus Free Theatre.

New Media Award supported by Google

This award recognises the use of computer or internet technology to foster debate, argument or dissent. Nominations can also include those who enhance online freedom through the use of new technologies

Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hajizade (Azerbaijan)

Emin Abdullayev – known as Milli – and Adnan Hajizade are two young Azeri bloggers who were charged with ‘hooliganism’ and sentenced to four years imprisonment in November 2009 after it was alleged they were involved in a fight. Both men had been actively using social media to mobilise opposition against the government, speaking out on a variety of issues, including government corruption, misuse of oil revenues, censorship and education. Several weeks prior to their arrest, the pair posted a video on YouTube mocking the government’s decision to spend a vast amount of money on importing two donkeys from Germany. Locals believe the tongue-in-cheek video angered the regime and was the real reason for their arrest. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe voiced concerns about the sentences and the ‘inevitable chilling effect on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan’. Their convictions were upheld in a March 2010 appeal hearing.

Yoani Sánchez (Cuba)

Writer Yoani Sánchez is best known for her Generation Y blog – a critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government. In November 2009, US President Barack Obama applauded her efforts to “empower fellow Cubans to express themselves through the use of technology”, he said her blog “provides the world [with] a unique window into the realities of daily life in Cuba”. In January 2009, Sánchez launched Voces Cubanas. This citizen journalism project seeks to provide a multimedia platform to independent bloggers in Cuba. She explained: “It is a website where all those who want to express ideas, put their projects online, can do so… I have the feeling that the Cuban blogosphere will play an important role in the democratisation of Cuba.” In November, Sánchez and three others were violently detained by men she claims were state agents. The vicious attack prevented them from attending a march against violence.

Twitter (USA)

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read messages with a 140-character limit. Twitter was thrust to the fore of international politics during the contested 2009 Iranian elections. During the huge protests that followed, the site played a pivotal role in mobilising protesters and facilitated a direct line of communication between demonstrators, news outlets and engaged people around the world. Maintaining its service in the face of a totalitarian regime, Twitter demonstrated how social networking can have a direct impact on the world stage. It was used as a powerful tool in protecting free expression in the UK when solicitors Carter-Ruck, acting on behalf of Trafigura, the multi-national oil company, tried to prevent the press from publishing details of a parliamentary question about a report into the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. Within hours ‘#trafigura’ and ‘#carterruck’ were the site’s most popular topics.

Ai Weiwei (China)

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese political activist, artist, curator and architectural designer. Ai, who is the next artist to take on the Tate Modern’s annual Turbine Hall commission, is very politically active. After the Sichuan earthquake of May 2008 he began an investigation into why so many schools had collapsed in the quake. By April 2009, he had published on his blog the names of the all 5,385 school children who died in the disaster. He began to be intimidated by plain-clothes policemen, his family and associates were also targeted. His blog was closed soon after. In August he was assaulted by armed police in Chengdu while attempting to attend the trial of fellow activist Tan Zuoren, who had been detained and accused of ‘undermining the authority of the state’ after calling for an investigation into the collapse of schools in the earthquake.

His installation, Remembering, commemorating the deaths of the Sichuan schoolchildren, opened at the Haus der Kunst gallery in Munich in October. “I call on people to be ‘obsessed citizens’, forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life” says Ai Weiwei.

Sage International Publishing Award

This award is given to a publisher who has given new insight into issues or events, or shown a perspective not often acknowledged, or given a platform to new voices

Afghan PEN (Afghanistan)

In 2009, Afghan PEN published seven books, one novel, two short story anthologies and four poetry collections despite extremely limited resources. It publishes books that would not be available otherwise and also arranges literary performances outside the capital in areas still affected by war. The organisation publishes literature and poetry from all ethnic communities in the country, it has more than 1,000 members in four sections – Dari, Pashto, Uzbek and Turkmen – which annually rotate the presidency.

As well as monitoring free expression in Afghanistan; campaigning on individual cases – such as the murder of Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi in Kunduz; – and hosting weekly literary events; Aghan PEN will play a leading role in the 2010 Kabul Book Fair in 2010. They plan to publish more writing by Afghan women writers and, with the support of the Goethe Institute, they will host the annual national literary festival.

Jama Musse Jama (Somaliland)

Dr Jama Musse Jama is a Somaliland activist, author, publisher and founder/organiser of Hargeisa International Book Fair. In 2009, Jama published Weerane (The Mourning Tree), biography of Mohamed Barud Ali, one of a group of political activists known internationally as the Hargeisa Self-Help Group, who were imprisoned under the late dictator Siyad Barre. Jama is editor of www.redsea-online.com, the only forum dedicated to the exchange of views on Somaliland culture and literature in both English and Somali languages. The site also acts as online library and bookstore. Jama wrote and published Somali Writers’ Association 2008 book of the year, Freedom is Not Free, which explains to ordinary citizens the significance of Article 32 of the Somaliland constitution, which “guarantees the fundamental right of freedom of expression and makes unlawful all acts to subjugate the press and the media”. The book is part of a wider campaign in conjunction with Somaliland human rights groups for freedom of expression.

Yael Lerer/Andalus Publishing Press (Israel)

Founded in 2000, Andalus is a unique Israeli publishing house dedicated to the translation of Arabic literature and prose into Hebrew.

Saqi Books (Lebanon/ UK)

Saqi Books was founded in 1984 in London, publishing quality cutting-edge and authoritative voices from North Africa and the Middle East. Together with Dar al Saqi, its publishing house in Beirut, it has made a significant contribution to Arab cultural heritage around the world. Saqi has a reputation for publishing writing that challenges taboos and offers fresh perspectives on politics, current affairs and art. Its fiction and non-fiction lists encompass a diverse range of subjects – honour killings, food and drink in the so-called ‘Axis of Evil’ states, homosexuality in the Arab world and the history of black Britain among them. One of its chief aims is to promote freedom of expression in the Middle East, often in the face of restrictive censorship laws, and though many of its books are banned in the region, it continues to publish controversial and groundbreaking material.

Freemuse Award

This award is given to a musician that highlights issues around censorship and freedom of expression

Iran has a vibrant underground music scene that explodes tired clichés about Iranian society, and Mahsa Vahdat is a fabulous example of this sub-culture. Vahdat continues to resist the pressures placed on female musicians by conservative sectors of Iranian society. In 2009, she recorded an album with American Mighty Sam McClain called Scent of Reunion – Love songs across civilizations. Mahsa was also featured in the powerful film on underground music in Tehran called No One Knows About The Persian Cats. She has shown courage and bold resistance in continuing to follow her artistic ambitions despite obstacles.

For almost three decades Turkish musician Ferhat Tunç has insisted on exercising his right to perform his music, ignoring several court cases and other threats against him in recent years. He has continued to sing in the minority language Zaza (Dimli) and in Kurmanci (Kurdish), as well as in Turkish. He has firmly refused to succumb to any form of intimidation, without expressing any hatred against its perpetrators. Through his brave stand against censorship, Ferhat has actively propagated the strengthening of human rights and democracy in Turkey.
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The attacks left Yoani Sánchez (whose blog Generación Y has won her the Spanish Ortega y Gasset prize in 2008 and the Mary Moors Cabot award from Columbia University for Internet journalism) needing to walk with a crutch for several days.

Yoani wrote that she was bundled into a car by two men, “one of whom put his knee on my chest while the other, from the seat next to me, kept punching me in the face”. The men warned her to stop “clowning around” before dropping her off back near her home. Her companion Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was also seized, and has posted images of the damage to his neck on his blog.

Another Cuban blogger, Claudia Cadelo, is reported to have been picked up by a police car at the same time.
The two bloggers were walking to Calle 23 and Avenue G where up to one hundred demonstrators were calling for an end to violence against anyone expressing dissenting views on the island, now ruled by Ráúl Castro, the younger brother of Fidel Castro.

According to Yoani, passers-by were told not to interfere because “these people are counter-revolutionaries”. In response, she has posted photos of the people she says keep her under constant surveillance.

Under Raúl Castro, it is no longer illegal for private individuals to own a computer, but the internet networks are kept under close watch by the Cuban Supervision and Control Agency, run by the Cuban Information Ministry. The internet situation in Cuba is complicated by the US embargo on trading with the island, which means that search engines such as Yahoo! And Google are not directly accessible.

According to Reporters without Borders, Cuban internet users face up to 20 years in prison if they post an article considered to be “counter-revolutionary” on a foreign-hosted website, and five years if they connect illegally to the international network. In one such case in 2007, Oscar Sánchez Madan, correspondent for Cubanet in Matanzas province, was sentenced to four years in prison “for tendency to social dangerousness”.

Yoani Sanchez is 32 years old, and has been posting daily on her blog since early 2007. She says Generacion Y is written “for those born in Cuba in the 70s and 80s, those marked by school camps in the countryside, Russian dolls, illegal exits, frustration”. It provides an individual, honest and often very funny comment on everyday life in Cuba, with all the hardships, petty restrictions and lack of possibilities.

Her blog is reported to receive more than a million hits per month, and is translated into 15 or more languages. This gives her many more readers outside Cuba, where Generación Y has been blocked by the authorities since March 2008.

Since the incident on 6 November, Yoani has not been able to re-establish internet connections. She now blogs via SMS messaging.

“I don’t think their attack is against the person of Yoani Sánchez, but rather against the blogger phenomenon, a phenomenon of different opinions that is taking place in Cuba,” Yoani Sánchez said in an interview with the blog Mediaite. “They still haven’t understood the potential of the web, and that these repressive measures do nothing but increase the number of hits on my blog,” she said.

There has been no official comment on the incident inside Cuba, and there is no independent confirmation of Yoani’s claims, but the Cuban authorities, under Raúl Castro, as much as when his brother was in power, continue to clamp down hard on dissenting political voices.

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