Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez, whose Generación Y blog (www.desdecuba.com/generaciony) has won international acclaim and is read by more than 14 million people per month, has won Columbia University’s Maria Moors Cabot Prize. The prize honors journalists covering the Western Hemisphere whose work has furthered inter-American understanding. Sánchez, who was selected by Time magazine as one of the world’s most influential people in 2008, is also read by 6,415 followers on her microblogging Twitter account (twitter.com/yoanisanchez).
Sánchez will not be able to collect her prize, however, as Cuban authorities will not allow her to travel to the United States to receive it, Columbia University said on Tuesday. “I am disappointed that the Cuban government refuses to let Yoani Sanchez travel to New York to receive a Maria Moors Cabot citation,” Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, said in a statement. “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,” he said.
Cuban authorities, who often condemn internal critics as U.S.-backed traitors, have accused her of being a “professional dissident” at the service of the “anti-Cuban propaganda machine.”
For the original report go to http://www.reuters.com/article/mediaNews/idUSN1320325920091013
