Fla. stations broadcast Radio and TV Marti reports to Cuba

Posted on Wed, Dec. 20, 2006

Fla. stations broadcast Radio and TV Marti reports to Cuba
By Vanessa Bauza and Madeline Baro Diaz
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Federally funded Radio and TV Marti have struck
six-month deals with two commercial South Florida stations to broadcast
news reports to Cuba in the latest attempt to circumvent jamming of
their anti-Castro programming.

U.S. law prohibits the use of public airwaves for propaganda aimed at
foreign audiences, such as Radio and TV Marti and Voice of America.
However, Tish King a spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Board of
Governors, which oversees the Cuba broadcasting programs, said the law
that created Radio Marti allows U.S. stations to carry the programming
if signals to Cuba are jammed.

After consulting with a congressional oversight committee, the board
decided similar rules could be applied to TV Marti, King said. The
agreements represent the first time private stations are allowed to
carry programming from Radio and TV Marti. The broadcasts began Monday.

The agreements, worth $377,500 combined, are an attempt to boost Radio
and TV Marti's Cuban audience at a critical time. In Havana, it is
unclear whether Fidel Castro will ever return to the presidency, while
in Washington anti-embargo legislators are increasingly criticizing the
administration's hard line against the island nation.

A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation visited Havana last week and
plans to hold hearings on legislation to ease travel restrictions to
Cuba. They will also examine federally funded programs that have
mismanaged millions of dollars for Cuban dissidents, according to a
government oversight board, and they question the effectiveness of
spending millions more on broadcasts that are rarely seen or heard.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who led the 10-member delegation, called the
decision to air Radio and TV Marti on local commercial stations a
politically motivated maneuver meant to appease South Florida's Cuban
American community.

"It's always been a show in search of an audience and I think now they
are simply removing the charade that this is intended for Cuba," Flake
said of Radio Marti.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said he supported "all available
technologies and broadcasting methods for TV and Radio Marti to break
through the information blockade imposed on the Cuban people."

According to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Radio Mambi, one of
the top Spanish language stations in South Florida, will receive
$182,500 to broadcast Radio Marti between midnight and 1a.m. on
weekdays. In a similar contract worth $195,000, half hour newscasts of
TV Marti will be aired twice daily on WPMF-TV, a Miami-based affiliate
of the Spanish-language Azteca Americas network picked up by DirecTV.

Cuba experts estimate Cuba has 10,000 black market DirecTV dishes, which
are regularly confiscated by the Cuban government.

Hans de Salas del Valle, a research associate at the University of
Miami's Institute for Cuba and Cuban American Studies, said Cubans'
access to DirecTV is too limited to make an impact.

"It seems again that the Cuban government has been able to anticipate
the tough measures that the administration has taken over the years," de
Salas del Valle said. "They seem to be a step ahead in terms of knowing
where their vulnerabilities are and taking steps to prepare. I don't
think this will have a major impact."

Enrique Landin, general manager of WPMF-TV, said he did not think the
programming would affect South Florida viewers.

"This is something that we are doing for the benefit of Cubans," said
Landin, who was born in Cuba.

---

© 2006 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/16280091.htm