US paid Miami journalists to publish anti-Castro news

At least 10 South Florida journalists, including three from the El Nuevo Herald newspaper, received regular payments from the US government for programs on Radio Martí and TV Martí, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years. Radio and TV Martí are US government programs created to undermine the Cuban government. Their programming cannot be broadcast within the United States because of anti-propaganda laws. Radio and TV Martí have received $37 million this year. The payments to journalists were discovered in documents recently obtained by the Miami Herald as a result of a federal Freedom of Information Request filed on Aug. 15. Among those named, all from El Nuevo Herald: Pablo Alfonso, who was paid almost $175,000 since 2001; Olga Connor got about $71,000; and Wilfredo Cancio Isla was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years. Alfonso and Cancio have been fired. Connor's freelance relationship with the newspaper also was severed. Other journalists receiving payments from the US Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and TV Martí, included: Diario Las Americas opinion page editor Helen Aguirre Ferre and reporter/columnist Ariel Remos; Channel 41 news director Miguel Cossio; and syndicated columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner, whose opinions appear in the pages of El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald. Jesus Diaz Jr., president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of both Herald newspapers, said the payments violated a sacred trust between journalists and the public. "I personally don't believe that integrity and objectivity can be assured if any of our reporters receive monetary compensation from any entity that he or she may cover or have covered, but particularly if it's a government agency," Diaz said. Analysts say that it's common for journalists to be compensated by other media outlets but not by the government, built on principles that espouse an independent press. "This is such an obvious textbook case," said University of Florida journalism professor Jon Roosenraad. "This is exactly like a business reporter during the day going out and moonlighting as a PR [public relations] person for a local company at night and then going back to the paper the next day and writing about 'his' company." "It's definitely a line that journalists shouldn't be crossing," said Iván Román, a former El Nuevo Herald journalist. "It's clear the medium has a particular agenda. If they cover Cuban issues, it could be seen as a conflict." Two ethics experts compared it to the case of Armstrong Williams in 2005, when it was revealed that the Bush administration had paid the prominent pundit to promote it's No Child Left Behind education policy, on his nationally syndicated tv show. The journalists involved are among the most popular in South Florida, and many were reporting on issues involving Radio or TV Martí for their news organizations. Channel 41 reporter Juan Manuel Cao, who received $11,400 this year from TV Martí, made news in July when he confronted Castro during an appearance in Argentina by pressing the Cuban leader to explain why his government had not allowed a well-known doctor and dissident, Hilda Molina, to leave the island to visit her son in Argentina. During the exchange, Castro openly questioned Cao if anyone was paying him to ask that question. The Cuban government has long contended that some South Florida Spanish-language journalists were on the federal payroll. "There is nothing suspect in this," Cao said. "I would do it for free. But the regulations don't allow it. I charge symbolically, below market prices." Helen Ferre, the opinion page editor for Diario las Americas, was paid $4,325 from 2001 to 2005. She said the payments did not compromise her journalistic integrity. She was paid to be a guest on TV Martí shows and said her point of view was never suppressed. Pedro Roig, director of the US Office of Cuba Broadcasting said he had sought to improve the quality of news by, among other things, hiring more Cuban exile journalists as contractors. He said it was the journalists' responsibility to adhere to their own ethics and rules.