The office of broadcasts to Cuba, OCB, groups Radio and Television Martí in its stations and its website, Martinoticias, are facing serious problems to survive, since the administration of President Donald Trump drastically reduced its budget and that of President Joe Biden has not considered increasing it and according to some, would welcome its closure, as the Cuban dictatorship has always demanded.
Due to the lack of resources, the transmission has been reduced to 12 hours a day and it is unknown to what levels it will drop after a process called RIF has been implemented, which would drastically affect the already reduced staff of just over 60 people, in another 23.
Really, at a time when the situation in Cuba is especially convulsive and the population, particularly the activists, need to communicate with each other, the decrease in the operability of these media is detrimental, because their listeners have a high confidence in what is said by the same, which keeps them from falling into provocations, a common practice of the dictatorship.
Beyond any other consideration, the work carried out by the Office of Broadcasts to Cuba, OCB, has been highly beneficial for the people of Cuba and in particular for the opposition to the totalitarian regime. I confess that I am proud to have had the opportunity to work for 23 years at Radio Martí.
I joined leading the station Herminio San Román and Roberto Rodríguez Tejera. Two notable journalists directed news, Gilberto Rosal and William Valdez, the four of them, were committed to truthfully informing the Cuban people, to assisting all opponents within the Island and that the news and analysis were based on reality. Everyone was deeply hurt by the situation in Cuba and made a strong effort to get truthful information to the island.
The stations have always worked according to the guidelines of the federal government, which are very rigid with regard to information, measures that we may or may not like as Cubans, but that are established for all the media outlets controlled by the government.
Unfortunately, there has been no shortage of people who, for different reasons, have severely criticized the station. It is true that there have been errors and mismanagement, that better things have been possible, but that does not detract from the Office of Broadcasting to Cuba from its many achievements in favor of informing the Cuban people and serving as a link to those within the Island fight for freedom. We must not forget that Castro’s strict censorship makes it practically impossible for what happens at one point on the island to be known a few kilometers away.
The vast majority of workers are talented, information professionals who take their work very seriously, and are governed by very strict information standards that must be faithfully adhered to. I assure you, without reservation, that objective information is essential and editorializing a news story, regardless of its orientation, is rejected. I knew of cases of colleagues separated from their duties, in my opinion, no serious transgression, because a supervisor in Washington interpreted a report or a program with too much zeal.
Periodically from the central office in Washington, it coordinates all the communication offices of the federal government, officials travel to give seminars that refresh old guidelines or point out new provisions. It should not be forgotten that OCB is an agency of the United States government, which acts based on the provisions of the officials designated to direct it, they do not always agree with the existence of the station or simply do not sympathize with its programming.
OCB, in my opinion is in danger of dying of consumption. If the readjustment takes place, they will have to reduce more hours, so I wonder, will the exile organizations continue to remain silent in the face of the slow death of Radio Martí. More importantly, the Cuban-American congressmen who defended these entities for decades will simply attend her funeral without making an effort to resurrect her as Ileana Ros-Lethinen would do without even being a representative in the House. I repeat, there have been bad officials, but mimicking the late colleague Cristina Sansón, “where is the mission and commitment to Cuba.”
OCB is an important instrument to help make totalitarianism disappear in Cuba, in addition, it is very useful to continue defending freedom and democracy throughout the hemisphere. Let’s do something.
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