World-renowned Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez revealed on Tuesday that her new digital newspaper should be up and running no later than early May:
Distribution will rely on cell phones and emails because Cubans have more mobile phones than computers — a meager 74 per 1,000 according to the latest official figures, she said — and easily available memory devices such USB flash drives, DVDs and CDs. The staff is also working on several backup ways of distributing the reports and getting around government censors, Sánchez added. … Government officials will likely try to crack down on her digital newspaper, Sánchez told a news conference after the award luncheon, perhaps by blocking its distribution, slandering its staffers or feeding them false information. Arresting the writers would be ‘clumsy,’ added the author of the blog Generación Y, although several independent journalists have been charged under Law 88, known as the Gag Law, with ‘publishing false news against world peace.’
Sánchez also commented on the political unrest in Venezuela, which provides up to $10 billion a year in subsidies to Cuba, saying that she couldn’t see a similar anti-government movement springing up on the island due to the political and social conditions enforced by Havana.