News

Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez denied permission to travel to New York

October 13, 2009

Yoani Sánchez, a Cuban journalist who blogs about life in a communist country, has been denied permission to travel to New York City to receive a Maria Moors Cabot Prize special citation, administered by The Journalism School and scheduled to be presented tomorrow.

In barely two years, Sánchez's weekly blog, Generación Y, which gets more than one million hits a month, has put the rest of the world in touch with Cuba — at least digitally. It is a mix of personal observation and tough analysis, which conveys better than anybody else what daily life ― with all its frustrations and hopes ― is like for Cubans living their lives on the island today.

"I am disappointed that the Cuban government refuses to let Yoani Sánchez travel to New York to receive a Maria Moors Cabot citation. Ms. Sánchez’s vivid commentaries on Cuba give us a lively sense of what is happening there. The Cuban government ought to value Ms. Sánchez’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," said Dean Nicholas Lemann.

Sánchez, a 34-year-old philologist, pursues her craft with ingenuity, scarce resources and an enormous amount of guts ― buying a few minutes here and there on one of the few Internet-connected computers available to Cubans in Havana, quickly downloading and e-mailing her written and video comments to devoted supporters who post to the blog in 15 languages.

Also honored with the Ortega y Gasset Prize in digital journalism, Sánchez was subsequently denied permission to visit Madrid to accept the award in May. In 2008, TIME magazine named Sánchez one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Watch CNN's coverage, which includes remarks from Columbia University President Lee Bollinger.