Sunday, December 12, 2010

Cuban Blogger Chosen for Spanish Human Rights Award

Cuban Blogger Chosen for Spanish Human Rights Award

PAMPLONA, Spain – Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez was chosen to receive the
Jaime Brunet International Prize for the Promotion of Human Rights, the
Public University of Navarre announced on Friday.

The jury charged with selecting the 2010 recipient of the award, which
is accompanied by 36,000 euros ($48,000), praised Sanchez for her
"courageous stand" in defense of fundamental rights on the
communist-ruled island, the university said in a statement.

Her Generacion Y blog is made up of a collection of articles describing
daily life in Cuba, exposing "with elegant subtlety and irony the
contradictions between real everyday life and 'official reality,'" the
jury said.

Sanchez, born in Havana in 1975, earned a university degree in
philology, but out of economic necessity began giving Spanish classes to
tourists, and finally emigrated to Switzerland in 2002, though for
family reasons she returned to Cuba two years later.

That same year she founded with other Cubans on the island the magazine
for reflection and debate entitled Consenso, and performed the function
of webmaster for the site www.desdecuba.com.

She created her own blog, which has been acknowledged by the
international community with various prestigious awards, including the
Ortega y Gasset Prize for Digital Journalism and an award from the
International Press Institute, which chose her as one of its 60 World
Press Freedom Heroes.

To date, Cuban authorities have not allowed Sanchez to travel abroad to
receive any honors in person. EFE

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14510&ArticleId=381250

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