The Countdown to an Independent Newspaper in Cuba Has Begun

Yoani Sanchez - Award-winning Cuban blogger

The Countdown to an Independent Newspaper in Cuba Has Begun
Posted: 03/14/2014 5:56 pm EDT Updated: 03/14/2014 5:59 pm EDT Print Article

"The newspaper was talking about you..." sings the voice of Joaquín
Sabina, while I read the newspaper Granma. On the cover, as usual,
there's some event. A tribute to a figure from the past, a reminder, a
phrase someone said forty or fifty years ago. All the pages have this
rancid stink of journalism that doesn't dare to address the present,
that avoids the here and now.

The Cuban official press can't reform itself because to do so would be
committing suicide. To report on the national reality it would have to
renounce its role as ideological propaganda. It's not enough to change
the design of its digital sites, add new signatures to its articles, or
keep the readers' letters complaining about bureaucrats and corruption.
It must go further and shed its political commitments and take on the
truth as its only obligation. But this... this we know it cannot do.

I expect more from the press that will emerge, or consolidate, than a
"new official journalism." But I am also aware that the work of
reporting from civil society, precarious and illegal, has to improve.
Information is not trench warfare and it is not a weapon. Events should
not be reported from the point of view of what we want to have happened,
but from what did happen.

For its part, thematic variety is not contrary to the defense of freedom
and human rights. There are many ways of speaking, and of speaking
beautifully. We must search, then, for ways of reporting that bring us
closer to ordinary readers. Creativity, daring and diverse points of
view help us to be better professionals of the press. Going down that
path is worth it.

For my part, I'm taking the first steps. The countdown to the digital
media I've been working on for four years has begun. A new professional
challenge approaches, but I will not be alone; rather I will be
accompanied by a team of talented people who want to do journalism with
a capital J.

In the coming weeks this personal blog will be transformed--right in
front of your eyes--into a media of the PRESS. Words of encouragement
are welcome!

My blog, GENERATION Y, has moved: READ IT HERE.

Read me and other Cuban bloggers on TRANSLATING CUBA.

And here is a link to my blog IN OTHER LANGUAGES.

Follow Yoani Sanchez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yoanifromcuba

Source: The Countdown to an Independent Newspaper in Cuba Has
Begun | Yoani Sanchez -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/the-countdown-to-an-indep_b_4967122.html