To reach our pages from Cuba readers must overcome censorship and technological difficulties
14ymedio, Havana, 26 May 2024 — Capable, on many occasions, of carrying out fierce debates at the bottom of our notes, the readers of 14ymedio have also congratulated this newspaper on its tenth anniversary. To reach our pages from Cuba they must overcome censorship and technological difficulties. For those who live abroad, it is a way to stay connected with the day-to-day life of the country they left behind.
Reader and commenter Alfredo David Zayas knows this well, and considers the newspaper’s work “a technological feat” as well as a journalistic one. “14ymedio is one of the very few truthful sources of information about Cuba and, furthermore, it is amazing what they can publish while in Havana,” he says.
Making a free press on the Island is “increasingly more difficult,” says user Ale, 65, a member of the Communist Party until he woke up from his “lethargy” reading independent newspapers, he says. “I wouldn’t miss a Cafecito Informativo for anything in the world,” he says. “I am convinced that their work is transparent, with the greatest interest in keeping us well informed. It can be said that they are almost war reporters, since they risk everything for their work.”
Making a free press on the Island is “increasingly more difficult,” says user Ale, 65, a member of the Communist Party until he woke up from his “lethargy” reading independent newspapers
From West Palm Beach, Florida, user Alberto Pérez reads 14ymedio, and is grateful that the newspaper offers the immigrant community in the United States “truthfulness, first-hand information and impartiality.” While Eduardo Sotelo considers that “it is necessary for everyone on the Island to read it” although “the dictatorship does not like that” nor does the government newspaper Granma, he emphasizes, whose press model is the complete opposite of the work of this newspaper.
It would not hurt the official press and the Cuban leaders – says the user Gatovolador, the reader with the most comments on our newspaper – to consult the news from 14ymedio from time to time. “If you read it you can learn a lot, and putting into practice everything that is said in it, perhaps this way you can get out of the total catastrophe that is upon you,” he emphasizes.
“Thank you for allowing me to give my opinion all this time,” says Cacique – another of our regular commentators – who has been proud to read the newspaper since 2020. The coverage of an event marked him: the explosion of the Saratoga hotel in Havana. Also loyal “since the Generation Y blog began” is the user Calamar, who congratulates the newspaper for “so many years of uncensored news.”
“They cannot give any more than what they give: continue accompanying the Cubans who are waiting for freedom from Cuba and those who are waiting for it in many other cities on the planet,” celebrates Laura Tedesco. “They have provided an example of perseverance, courage and professionalism; a critical and honest look; information in a country full of lies and inspiring many journalists in dictatorial contexts,” adds the co-director of the Dialogues about Cuba project and vice dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus.
For academic Ted Henken, professor of Sociology at Baruch College in New York, 14ymedio is “a constant source of information on current Cuba, reported with professionalism and passion, not easy in the polarized Cuban context.” In his teaching work, he has used our articles on multiple occasions as a means “to closely follow what is happening on the Island with the independent civil society and the increasingly weak, desperate and illegitimate Government.”
The writer José Prats Sariol, for his part, believes that “courage and self-confidence have accompanied 14ymedio since its foundation, without believing themselves to be owners of the truth, but rather of intelligent, plural dialogue.”
The commenter Medinavi appreciates “courage and perseverance to keep citizens who want to think informed.” He agrees that it is a “challenge” to work under a regime like the Cuban one, since it means bearing witness to a “dystopia” that began in 1959. The newspaper rescues “the culture of good thinking, promoting tolerance and laying the foundations for a not-too-distant political change.”
The newspaper rescues “the culture of good thinking, promoting tolerance and laying the foundations for a not-too-distant political change”
It is precisely the “decent language” – in every sense of the word – that commenter Gusano de Corazón praises, defining the work of 14ymedio as a contribution “with the truth.” Maintaining a newspaper in Cuba has everything to do with the defense of “civility and democratic values” and culture, argues Eduardo Sintes, who describes those who collaborate with the newspaper as people “full of love for Cuba and for the highest ideals of freedom.”
When ten years have passed since this anniversary – commenter Aesop hopes from Sao Paulo, Brazil – that 14ymedio will be read on the Island without the Government blocking it. “A couple of years ago,” he says, “on one occasion when Cuba was in the news in Brazil, a great journalist and commentator from TV Globo News said: ‘Since there is no credible information about Cuba, I had to get information from 14ymedio, the newspaper of Yoani Sánchez that is published in Havana’. She is the only one worthy of credibility on the Island.”
Readers of 14ymedio believe that, after a decade, the newspaper has become “an open window to the reality of Cuba.” Aside from the notes and reports, starring in multiple controversies and closely observing the work of the Editorial Team, they also have the satisfaction that, along with the best wishes, expresses the message: “Ten years already. Thank you so much.”
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COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
