14ymedio
14ymedio is the first independent digital media outlet in Cuba. It was founded on May 21, 2014, by the Cuban blogger and activist Yoani Sánchez and the Cuban journalist Reinaldo Escobar. The project started with a group of 12 reporters, whose objective was to produce a digital media outlet with different types of news. The newspaper contains news about Cuba and the world, in topics related to national politics, international politics, economy, culture, society, science and technology, and sports. It also publishes editorials, opinion articles, and interviews. The name '14ymedio' characterizes the project in several ways. First, the number '14' is because the newspaper was born "on the fourteenth floor, in the fourteenth year of the new millennium". The letter 'Y' has been a constant characteristic in other projects of Yoani Sánchez, its founder, who also founded "Generación Y"; while 'medio' refers to the media and to the journalistic connotation of the project. 14ymedio is born in digital format in one of the countries with the lowest internet connectivity across the globe. Given the political situation in Cuba, where the government controls all media and regularly blocks access to websites that are hostile to its administration, the newspaper operates without access to the internet. The team uploads the information by using Wifi access from hotels. Currently, most Cubans do not have access to the publication due to continued issues with broad internet access and the government's ability to control its availability and functionality. History 14ymedio starts as personal project of its founder: Yoani Sánchez, the founder 'Generación Y', a blog that now has about a thousand published texts and more than a million comments. Its main objective is "to inform, to open space for debate, to respect those who think differently, and to harmonize free speech with civic responsibility". For its initial funding, the newspaper received approximately $150.000 in private investment. The first edition of 14ymedio was focused on a wide variety of topics, including politics, culture and society. It offered a critique to the Cuban healthcare system and questioned the status of baseball as the national sport. Its cover included the story "Red Dawn: Havana is killing out there", by Víctor Ariel González, in which violence in the capital of the island is discussed; an opinion article about the economic reforms promoted by Raúl Castro, written by the dissident blogger Miriam Celaya. Three hours after 14ymedio published its first edition on the internet, the site was hacked. Those who tried to access the site were redirected to a webpage titled "Yoani$landia", which mentioned that Cubans are tired about the fact that Yoani Sánchez tries to portray herself as the 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta' of the Cuban dissidents. Internet technicians later on tested it was ETECSA, the communications monopoly of the Cuban government, that hacked the page. From places outside Cuba, users can access the site without any restriction. Recognizing that restricting access to the site was an initiative of the Cuban government, Yoani Sánchez published in her Twitter account: