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CADAL nominated Reinaldo Escobar for this prize because of his professionalism and sincerity in the search of the truth and freedom for his country through his qualitative work as a professional journalist.The Puente Democrático Program of CADAL presented the application of the Cuban journalist Reinaldo Escobar for the Free Speech Hero Prize for his committed work with truth, freedom and the defense of human rights to the Index on Censorship Institution.Reinaldo Escobar (Camagüey, 1947), graduated in journalism at the University of Havana in 1971. He worked for the magazine Cuba International from 1973 until the end of 1986. After that he worked for the national newspaper Juventud Rebelde, from where he got expulsed in December of 1988 because of his opinion, different from the editorial opinion of this official publication. Since then, he works as a freelance journalist for El Nuevo Herald, Tages Zeitung and Qué pasa. In 2004 he founded together with others the independent digital medium Consenso. In 2007 he opened his own blog "Desde Aquí".He also gave journalism classes in the Blogger Academy and worked as presenter in the alternative television program Razones Ciudadanas. In 2013 he won the award for opinion journalism in the competition of the Inter American Press Society. Currently, he works as chief editor of the newspaper www.14ymedio.com, which he himself founded together with his wife Yoani Sánchez.CADAL nominated Reinaldo Escobar for the journalist category of the prize because of his professionalism and sincerity in the search of the truth and freedom for his country through his qualitative work as a professional journalist.The prize of freedom of speech of the Index on Censorship awards individuals and groups that worked against censorship in the world.The prize was established 15 years ago and awards the work against censorship in the world..Every year the Free Speech Hero award draw attention to several brave journalists, writers, artist and human rights activists from all over the world. In 2014 Azadliq was honored, which is the only independent newspaper left in Azerbaijan, which dedicates his work to expose the governmental corruption despite violent attacks against its journalists. Mayam Mahmoud, an Egyptian singer, who uses rap to talk about gender violence, was honored, too. Just as Shahzad Ahmad, who faces death threats in his country, Pakistan, due to his work for digital rights; and Shubhranshu Choudhary, a journalist, who uses mobile phones to give news access to Indians who live in rural areas.The list of the nominated for the Free Speech Hero award 2015 will be published in January and the winners will be known on 18th of March, 2015.
