Friday, March 05, 2010

Director defends Radio and TV Martí

Pedro Roig , director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting which runs Radio and TV Martí, has written a piece defending the stations against what he calls ‘a tirade’ by a Cuban exile in Florida. Writing in the Miami Herald, Mr Roig says that ‘The statement that Radio Martí has canceled programs where opponents of the regime participated is false’ and ‘Another falsehood is to proclaim that Televisión Martí has canceled its newscasts.’

Mr Roig says that “When I took over as director of Radio and TV Martí, the only way we could broadcast to the island was using an aerostatic balloon anchored in the Florida Keys. We have come a long way since then, significantly expanding the platforms used to beam the signal of Televisión Martí to the island.

“We now employ four broadcast platforms: The Direct TV satellite (Channel 8); the Hispasat Spanish satellite; the “Aero Martí’” aircraft, which flies over the Florida Keys transmitting simultaneously in VHF (Channel 13) and UHF (Channel 20); and our digital webpage martinoticias.com, available to those Cubans with secret Internet access that’s banned by the government.”
(R netherlands Media Network Weblog)

Additional story at Miami Herald:
Radio TV Mrti Fight for Freedom
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/03/1509269/radio-tv-marti-fight-for-freedom.html.