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Jul 28, 2007 8:29 am US/Eastern
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TV Marti Still Tough To See In Cuba
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Ten months ago, the U.S. government launched a new method of beaming TV broadcasts into Cuba using a Gulf Stream jet. It was considered another way of getting television transmissions beamed into the communist country.
A U.S. State Department draft report circulated last month called the jet "a best practice" to beat the Cubans' jamming efforts and said the $10 million startup cost was "a big investment but appears to be paying off," with viewership on the rise.
The TV operation costs U.S. taxpayers more than $20 million a year.
But more than two dozen Cuban immigrants who recently arrived in Florida paint a very different picture. In interviews with The Associated Press, they said while the U.S. government's Radio Marti is heard throughout the island, TV Marti can rarely be seen.
"I saw it during a day with very good climatological conditions, but it still barely came through," said Efrain Ramos, 56, who arrived in Florida June 29 from Havana. Those outside of Havana couldn't see it at all.
This is just the latest criticism of TV Marti, which has been accused of being biased, sometimes mismanaged and often boring. The station remains in sync with the views of Miami's most hardline, Cuban-American political leadership, and efforts by some members of Congress to put the 17-year-old station out of business have never gotten very far.
But U.S. Reps. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., are pushing for hearings on the Marti stations for the fall, and congressional investigators began reviewing management of the Martis last month.
Since 2005, several employees have sent repeated unsigned letters to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice criticizing the management. Among their concerns is the State Department report's reliance on a January poll showing the number of Cubans viewing Marti on the island increased with the plane's launch. The man whose company commissioned the poll is a veteran Spanish-language media consultant Herb Levin, who helped found Radio Marti and has had several other contracts to improve Marti programming.
"I don't care about the perceptions. I know the quality of work we do, and the standards we apply to the work we perform," Levin said. "I'm open for any kind of examination of our work product."
The recent State Department report found the station suffered from a lack of communication between management and employees and that ethical standards needed to be reviewed, but it said overall morale had improved in recent years under current Director Pedro Roig.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)