Daily Headlines: July 10, 2014

* Uruguay: President Jose Mujica announced that Uruguay’s plan to legalize the selling and distribution of marijuana would be delayed until 2015 because of “practical difficulties.”

* Cuba: Aero Marti, “an airborne broadcasting platform that sent radio and television signals to Cuba,” was cancelled by U.S. authorities allegedly due to its cost and ineffectiveness.

* Mexico: The Mayan ruins of Calakmul became Mexico’s first site to receive the “mixed” World Heritage status from the U.N.

* Argentina: Vice-President Amado Boudou may be indicted on charges of corruption but that didn’t stop him from presiding over the Argentine government’s official Independence Day celebration.

Video Source – Fusion via YouTube

Online Sources – LAHT; ABC News; The Straits Times; Buenos Aires Herald

Radio and TV Marti On the Air Despite Gov’t Shutdown

Broadcasts to Cuba via Radio and TV Martí (RTVM) have continued despite a U.S. government shutdown that started on Tuesday.

According to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), U.S.-funded news that the organization oversees such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and RTVM are “necessary for conducting foreign relations essential to the national security.”  Hence, BBG operations are exempt from being suspended during the government shutdown period.

BBG activities have been slimmed down to encourage the use of “pre-recorded material” and bars starting any “new programs or projects.”  Nevertheless, breaking news and high-priority live news programs will continue and RTVM’s website has been kept updated with news stories.  (Ironically, one of the website’s most recently headlines was the “failure” of negotiations yesterday between U.S. President Barack and Congressional leaders to end the shutdown.)

The fact that the Office of Management and Budget signed off on this indicates how high a priority our broadcasting activities are,” said BBG spokeswoman Lynne Weil to Foreign Policy’s The Cable website.  “The mission of the agency is to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy”.

Broadcasts from Radio Martí (founded in 1983) and TV Martí (started in 1990) are based out of Miami and is rand are beamed into Cuba with the aim of overcoming the tight media controls under the Castro regime.

Daily Headlines: October 4, 2011

* Peru: Nearly three hundred women including at least five minors were rescued after having been forced into prostitution in the Amazon state of Madre de Dios.

* Puerto Rico: The commonwealth joined a lawsuit with seven states and the Department of Justice seeking to prevent the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.

* Latin America: U.S. President Barack Obama formally submitted free trade pacts with Colombia and Panama to Congress for approval.

* Cuba: Officials claimed that U.S.-government-run Radio/TV Marti is breaking Cuban law by sending SMS messages to the island’s cell phone users.

Video Source – NTN24 via YouTube (Five people were arrested and charged with human trafficking due to there suspected role behind a Peruvian prostitution ring).

Online Sources - MSNBC, MiamiHerald.com, Reuters, PC Magazine

Should Radio, TV Marti be scrapped?

At a Congressional hearing yesterday several lawmakers argued that U.S. radio and TV broadcasts to Cuba ought to be cut or removed altogether.

"Radio and TV Marti have failed to make any discernable inroads into Cuban society or to influence the Cuban Government," according to a report by the Democratic majority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. John Kerry wrote in the report that the broadcasts have “noble objectives” but that Radio and TV Marti be moved from Miami and folded into the Washington-based Voice of America network. The report added that the move would not only cut costs but also encourage higher “journalistic standards” and cut into alleged malfeasance at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB).

The report was assailed by supporters of the Marti broadcasts and has emboldened one of its strongest detractors:

"(…) Kerry and his staff are out to kill the OCB," charged Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-born Florida Republican, in an interview with the Miami Herald. "They have always tried to kill it and they continue to try to kill it," he added. 



But, citing the report's finding's, Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who serves on the Committee, called on President Barack Obama to eliminate all funding for both operations. 



"This programming is a relic of the Cold War, falls short of journalistic standards and is a prime example of wasteful government spending at a time when we should be reducing the deficit," he said in a letter to Obama.

According to a 2009 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report only 2% of Cubans have tuned in to either TV or Radio Marti. Part of the reason for such a small audience is because the Cuban government regularly jams signal from the U.S., said the GAO study.

Image- daylife.com (2007 image of Radio Marti newscasters)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Washington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, IPS

Daily Headlines: January 28, 2010

* U.S.: One year and one day ago we wondered if “Ugly Betty” would soon be cancelled. 366 days later we received the unfortunate answer.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran government lodged a formal complaint against Mexico related to the death of three migrants.

* Cuba: Should the Obama administration put a stop to TV and Radio Marti broadcasts to Cuba?

* Latin America: Mexican archeologists found an 1100-year-old tomb in Guatemala that could reveal important details on Mayan culture.

Image – News.com.au
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, ABC News, Washington Post, Javno, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: June 18, 2009

* U.S.: During a hearing yesterday, some Congressmen criticized the mismanagement and a minuscule audience of U.S.-government funded broadcasting to Cuba.

* Colombia: The country’s top court refused Washington’s extradition request of a FARC guerrilla accused of being behind the kidnapping of three now-freed U.S. contractors in 2003.

* Brazil: Autopsies of the few body parts found floating in the Atlantic from Air France Flight 447 indicate that the airliner somehow broke apart in the air.

* Uruguay: Montevideo-based Nacional became the first Uruguayan side to reach the Copa Libertadores semifinals in twenty years after upsetting Brazil’s Palmeiras.

Image- MSNBC (The U.S. government has spent almost $600 million on TV and Radio Marti since the mid 1980s).
Online Sources- Voice of America, Los Angeles Times, ESPN, MSNBC

GAO questions Radio and TV Marti

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) questioned the efficacy of U.S.-funded radio and television broadcasts to Cuba.

The report concluded that less than 2% of Cubans have heard or watched TV and Radio Martí over the past year. In addition, the GAO suggested that the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) significantly improve its programming and journalistic standards in order to justify its $34 million yearly budget.

OCB director Pedro Roig questioned the report's surveying methods and claimed that the data doesn’t “fully reflect the difficulties in broadcasting to a closed society."

The GAO report also found other interesting nuggets of information such as some watching habits Cubans:

_U.S. officials have little information about how Cuba jams the signals and where its equipment is located. The most recent data indicates most jamming takes place around Cuba's capital, Havana.

_Problems remain with journalistic standards of objectivity and balance on some Marti programs. Sometimes unsubstantiated reports from Cuba are included in news programming.

_ More than 90 percent of the telephone survey respondents say they watch Cuba national TV broadcasts, including such popular U.S. shows as "The Sopranos" and "Grey's Anatomy." Cuba also regularly rebroadcasts portions of CNN on its stations.

Image- daylife.com (“Pedro de Pool, left, Roberto Bermudez, center, and Aristides P. Quinteros, right, are shown during a live broadcast of Radio Marti News magazine "En Directo" to Cuba in Miami, Friday, June 22, 2007.”)
Online Sources- The Swamp, Riptide 2.0, Denver Post, IHT