More Journalists On U.S. Government Payroll [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
Ten Miami journalists [3] have been paid by the Office of Cuba Broadcasting [4] (OCB) for their involvement in programs for the anti-Castro propaganda stations, Radio Martí and TV Martí. The OCB is a unit of the the U.S. government-funded Broadcasting Board of Governors [5]. Three of the ten were journalists with El Nuevo Herald. "Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba and writes an opinion column, was paid almost $175,000 since 2001 to host shows on Radio Martí and TV Martí. El Nuevo Herald freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture, received about $71,000, and staff reporter Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covers the Cuban exile community and politics, was paid almost $15,000 in the last five years," Oscar Corral wrote. Alfonso and Isla have been fired by El Nuevo Herald and Connor's freelance relationship terminated. The director of OCB, Pedro Roig [6], defended the payments.