Responses to articles on Radio-TV Marti

Posted on Tue, Sep. 12, 2006

Responses to articles on Radio-TV Martí

I have learned, via the Internet in Madrid, that I have been included in
a story over an alleged conflict of interest that involves local
journalists in Miami who work for The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald
and who simultaneously contribute to Radio-TV Martí. All of those
people, to be sure, have a well-earned reputation for honesty and
probity and would never sell their pens to anyone.

Why was my name included in that report? I don't live in Miami, and I
don't work at The Miami Herald or El Nuevo Herald, nor am I subject to
their regulations. I'm not even a free-lancer for these publications.
The Herald, like 60 other publications in Europe, the United States and
Latin America, among them some radio stations, buys my column from
Firmas Press, the agency that distributes my writings.

Some years ago, Radio Martí, like any other communications outlet,
became interested in my column and in the topics I analyze, and they
hired me to do a 20-minute commentary by telephone once a week for Cuban
listeners without access to a free press nor to my column that appears
in the McClatchy newspapers. For those commentaries, they would pay
$100, which is the official and obligatory stipulated amount of
remuneration. This is almost a symbolic figure, well below the amount
paid by others who publish the column. Of course, there wasn't the
slightest condition or suggestion, and if there had been I wouldn't have
accepted it. I would have, and I have, as much freedom as I exercise in
my weekly column.

Contributing to breaking the boycott on information that exists in Cuba,
far from being a conflict of interest, is the duty and responsibility of
any Cuban journalist who truly loves liberty. To use the phrase of [TV
reporter] Juan Manuel Cao, more than a conflict of interest, it is a
coincidence of interests. Radio-TV Martí wants Cubans to be freely
informed. So do I. Where's the problem?

The way in which the information was presented, as if some dark criminal
plot had been uncovered, suggests that my honesty as a writer has been
compromised by those commentaries I write for the Cuban people. That is
something unfair, ludicrous, offensive and false, as if someone had
claimed that my opinions on social and economic issues should not be
taken into account because I have sold out to big money and the bankers.

Thank you for publishing this letter. I owe this explanation to my
readers because my honesty and credibility, the basic elements of the
profession to which I have devoted my life, have been unfairly called
into question.

CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER, syndicated columnist, Firmas Press, Madrid, Spain

A Sept. 8 Miami Herald article questioned the acceptance of a small
honorarium for my appearances on TV Martí. I believed that the
honorarium was appropriate as an expense stipend from a news
organization and, therefore, did not consider it a conflict of interest
to have accepted such payments.

Upon further reflection I realize, in light of the government's role in
Radio and TV Martí, that the receipt of such payment may raise questions
from members of our journalism community whom I respect and hold in high
regard.

I do not wish for any action that I have taken to cast into question my
journalistic integrity, although I know that my integrity and
objectivity were, in fact, never compromised