Lately in Latin American news a dissident Cuban blogger by the name of Yoani Sanchez (Right) has been arrested by Cuban authorities. Sanchez has her very own blog known as: Generation Y. Sanchez also covers stories for a Spanish newspaper known as
El Pais. Sanchez was arrested before arriving to Bayamo, Cuba where she was planned on covering a story for
El Pais about the trial of Spanish politician Angel Carromero. After being arrested another blogger who is known to be pro-government blogged about Sanchez portraying that her intention during the trial was to put on a "media show" of the trial and to disrupt it. This isn't necessarily true because Sanchez's primary intention was to cover the events of the trial. So far in the event
El Pais has stated that they have lost contact with Sanchez; it is possible that this could turn into a national crisis much like the Julian Assange situation. Although throughout this entire event Sanchez has gained even more international attention and recognition for her blog. So from this Sanchez has gained many followers and admirers who will indeed be behind her and would want to see her release.
The Cuban government has been repeatedly been using "arbitrary detention to silence critics, disrupt peaceful assembly, and impede independent journalism". As you can see the media has a impact on many factors of our daily lives; in this case the media has impacted the Cuban government to appose all types of journalism in a very drastic way. In many ways this is seen as a bad fault because this defies the Freedom of Speech; although being a Communist country Freedom of Speech is very limited in fact the Cuban media is controlled by the government. This event could spark many events such as the a crisis between the release of Sanchez. Moreover, maybe even a movement to have the Cuban media break free from the government.
Here are some links to the actual article about the arrest of Yoani Sanchez -
CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/05/world/americas/cuba-blogger-arrest/index.html?hpt=ila_c2
The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/05/cuban-blogger-yoani-sanchez-arrested
Yoani Sanchez's Blog Generation Y:
http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/
Having just been in Cuba for a week I have come to notice how afraid people are of the government how how strict the cuban government is. The cuban government owns everything including the newspaper so that they can edit what they want in it. I believe this is a very interesting article on Sanchez and how the media affects her life and has made it better and impacts our decisions on what to think of her
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