Cuba blogger cannot receive prize

Cuba blogger cannot receive prize
Yoani Sanchez

A dissident Cuban blogger cannot go to New York to receive a top
journalism prize, after the authorities upheld a ban on her travel abroad.

Yoani Sanchez, 34, won the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Generacion Y, a
blog critical of Cuba's one-party Communist government.

The prize is the oldest international award in journalism.

It is given by Columbia University to journalists who have furthered
inter-American understanding.

"The immigration office just informed me that the ban remains on my
leaving the country," Ms Sanchez said on Monday via the social
networking website Twitter, where she has 6,638 followers.

"I am going to celebrate on the night of the award with some friends. I
am not going to let the refusal to travel ruin the happiness of the
prize," she added.

"I dream of an island where nobody needs to ask permission to enter and
leave."

'Better future'

Generacion Y has become a trusted source for news on Cuba, with the site
receiving 14 million hits a month.

Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism,
released a statement expressing his disappointment over the Cuban
government's refusal to allow Yoani Sanchez to travel to New York.

"The Cuban government ought to value Ms Sanchez's work as a sign that
young Cubans are ready to take Cuba into a better future - one that will
have the free press the Cuban people deserve," Mr Lemann said.

Last year Time Magazine named Ms Sanchez as one of the world's most
influential people, and this year it listed Generacion Y as one of the
world's top 25 blogs.

But in Cuba readership is limited due to restricted internet access.

Only about 2.1% of Cubans have regular access to the global internet and
11.5% to the Cuban intranet, according to the Washington-based democracy
and human rights organisation Freedom House.

"Bloggers can go online at government-owned internet cafes, at
universities and hotels," it says.

This is not the first time Generacion Y has been given recognition - in
2008 Spain's El Pais newspaper gave it an award for overcoming limits to
free expression.

Similarly, Ms Sanchez was denied an exit visa to attend the award
ceremony in Madrid.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Cuba blogger cannot receive prize (15 October 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8306557.stm