14ymedio, Our Independent Newspaper, Is Here To Stay; State Security Better Get Used to It

14ymedio, Our Independent Newspaper, Is Here To Stay; State Security
Better Get Used to It
Posted: 10/07/2014 11:44 pm EDT Updated: 10/07/2014 11:59 pm EDT

Yoani Sanchez, Havana, 7 October 2014 - Monday afternoon was like any
other for Juan Carlos Fernandez. The water stubbornly persisted in not
coming out of the pipes, so cup by cup he collected it from the lowest
source in his house. The family revolved around his mother-in-law, who
had been suffering for half a year, dying, and now and again this lanky
and smiling man from Pinar del Rio looked at the phone to see if there
were any messages.

The routine was broken when someone knocked on the door and handed him a
summons from the police. El Juanca - as his friends call him - is
accustomed to State Security calling him to account. His longtime work
with Coexistence magazine and his nonconformity as a citizen have taken
him, on many occasions, to police cells and stations. So, he didn't even
flinch and notified all those who love him and appreciate him.

This morning he was finally face-to-face with a police official at the
Technical Investigation Department (DTI). The topic at hand was as
predictable as it was invasive of his rights. His collaboration with our
little digital daily newspaper was the reason for the most recent box on
the ears they gave him.

"They gave me a written warning for working for an illegal unregistered
publication," Juanca told me. With the mix of playfulness and good humor
that characterizes him, he quickly suggested to the lady "that they
allow the legalization of 14ymedio."

Clearly, she responded evasively to his proposal, because fact of not
allowing non-governmental media to exist seems to be an indispensable
condition to sustain the official press, which is so bad from the
journalistic point of view that only its status as a monopoly can ensure
that it has an audience.

"You people are not journalists," the official snapped. To which Juanca
shot back, "Differences aside, neither was José Martí."

Among other falsehoods, the police told him that 14ymedio was a
newspaper financed by USAID. Although this accusation is repeated
against any independent project, in this case it demonstrates ignorance
more than malice. This newspaper, publicly and transparently, has a
business structure that can be read in detail in the "About Us" section
of its digital page.

This financial arrangement was precisely one of the conditions we found
indispensable to undertaken renewed journalism with a sustainable press
media. Unlike the government newspaper Granma, and all the official
newspapers, we do not dip our hands into the state coffers to produce
political propaganda. We are waiting anxiously, it's true, for them to
allow us to register our small enterprise in the corporate records of
our country. Will they dare to allow it?

We want to have legal status, to hang a sign on the door of our
editorial offices and display, without fear, our press credentials. Why
do they refuse us this right? Haven't they realized that a press
hijacked by a single party doesn't meet the information demands of a
plural and diverse country like ours? Will they ever have the political
courage to pass a law so that independent journalism will emerge from
the shadows into public life?

When that functionary lies without giving us the right to reply, she is
using her authority to commit a true abuse of power. Which becomes even
more dramatic because of the level of disinformation within which most
Cubans and apparently, the political police as well, exist.

Wrapped in her uniform, the official also told Juanca that our media
dedicated itself to "defaming and denigrating the achievements of the
Revolution." With this statement, the lady made it clear that in this
country only media that sings the praises of the system can exist; and
on the other hand, it gives the impression that she has privileged
access to 14ymedio, because since our birth, on 21 May 2014, we have
been blocked on the Island's servers. Madam, do you enter our page via
anonymous proxies? Or, even worse, are you talking about something
you've never seen? I fear it's the latter.

I also challenge this policewoman to point out to me a single
characteristic of the current Cuban political system that allows her to
call it a "Revolution." Where is the dynamism? The character of renewal?
The movement? Please, update your words - not out of respect for this
renegade philologist who believes in the semantics of the terminology -
but because, as long as you don't publicly acknowledge that you are
stuck in a stagnant and fossilized history, you will not be able to
implement the solutions this nation urgently needs.

During the interrogation, our Pinar del Rio correspondent was also
threatened that, if it looked like he was practicing journalism, he
would be arrested and his phone and camera confiscated. Let's hear it
for the ideological bulwark information puts at risk! I understand the
truth less and less.

In this situation we have come to, everything is possible. Repression,
in the worst style of the 2003 Black Spring; the rifle butts breaking
down the doors; the continuation of the campaign of defamation,
increasingly ineffectual... this and much more. What will not happen is
that, faced with the fear and the pressure, we will cease to do
journalism. 14ymedio is going to be around for a long time, so you might
as well get used to living with us.

Source: 14ymedio, Our Independent Newspaper, Is Here To Stay; State
Security Better Get Used to It | Yoani Sanchez -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/14ymedio-our-independent_b_5949770.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=WorldPost