Future of Radio and TV Martí in the air amid possible broadcasting change

Future of Radio and TV Martí in the air amid possible broadcasting change

Announcement could pave way to privatization of service
ALFONSO CHARDY AND NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
achardy@elnuevoherald.com

In a surprise move, the U.S. government last week announced plans for
the possible establishment of a "Spanish-language grantee" to perform
the functions of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio
and TV Martí.

Though the federal officials who made the announcement did not provide
specific details, some observers speculated that the move could mark the
first concrete step to modify the arrangement under which Radio and TV
Martí has been operating since the service was established under
President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

The announcement came a little more than a year after President Barack
Obama ordered the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba. Though
there are now embassies in Havana and Washington, Cuba has continued to
press a number of demands including the shutdown of Radio and TV Martí.

Officials of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees
broadcast services to various countries including Cuba and the Voice of
America, made the announcement Tuesday during a telephone news
conference from Washington.

A Broadcasting Board document that referred to the proposal said:
"Spanish Language Grantee for Cuba: BBG requests authority to establish
a new Spanish language, non-federal media organization that would
receive a BBG grant and perform the functions of the current Office of
Cuba Broadcasting."

María "Malule" González, the newly appointed director of the Office of
Cuba Broadcasting, will not alter her office's goals toward Cuba.

"We're going to keep doing our mission, which is to provide Cubans on
the island information that they don't have access to," she said.

Tim Shamble, president of the American Federation of Government
Employees Local 1812, which represents Radio and TV Martí employees,
spoke against the proposal.

"We oppose it," he told el Nuevo Herald. "It would take away civil
service rights of the employees and federal union rights as well."

The announcement stirred alarm among Radio and TV Martí employees in Miami.

A Radio and TV Martí journalist, who asked not be identified, said he
and his colleagues feared "losing their federal benefits" in case of a
"privatization of operations."

In the telephone news conference, BBG executive director John F. Lansing
said the proposed change was mainly aimed at cost savings and providing
the organization with greater flexibility.

"Number one, the mission of OCB would be completely unaffected," Lansing
said. "It would be the exact same mission, at the same funding levels
and nothing would alter that. Secondly, any change, any defederalization
of OCB would still be subject to a legislative process, which may or may
not, indeed, happen and third the effect that it would have would depend
on whether a) that it happens and b) if it did happen how it was
designed at some point in the future."

Previously, an initial draft of the 2015 budget proposal for the State
Department and foreign operations maintained the level of financing for
OCB but foresaw the possibility that it could merged with the Voice of
America's Latin America division.

Some observers saw the new proposal as a way to alter or end, if not
official funding for the service, then editorial influence over
broadcasts to the island.

"This has to do with the rapprochement toward Cuba," said the Radio and
TV Martí journalist who asked not to be identified. "It's one of the
things that Cuba has always demanded. They don't want to say they are
shutting it down, in order to save face with the Versailles crowd, but
at the same time they could now say that it is not the government doing
it if taken to task over it."

His reference to the "Versailles crowd" was a symbolic allusion to
orthodox or traditional Cuban exiles who typically oppose Cuban policies
or U.S. policy changes toward Cuba.

"The game is rigged," he said.

In January 2015, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., eliminated the so-called
AeroMartí program, which beamed radio and television signals from an
aircraft. In light of criticism of Radio and TV Martí's low audience,
OCB at the time focused its strategy on expanding the Martí Noticias
digital platform, strengthened its network of correspondents within the
island and created an alternative content distribution system via CDs
and USB flash drives.

Source: Future of Radio and TV Martí in the air amid possible
broadcasting change | Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article60355171.html