10 Journalists in Florida Got Money from Government

By: E&P Staff A report by Oscar Corral in Friday's Miami Herald reveals that at least 10 South Florida journalists -- including three from sister paper El Nuevo Herald -- "received regular payments from the U.S. government for programs on Radio Mart? and TV Mart?, two broadcasters aimed at undermining the communist government of Fidel Castro. The payments totaled thousands of dollars over several years."

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.

Jes?s D?az Jr., president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of both newspapers, said the payments violated a ''sacred trust'' between journalists and the public, according to the article.

''Even the appearance that your objectivity or integrity might have been impaired is something we can't condone, not in our business,'' D?az said. ``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.''

Others receiving payments from the U.S. Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and TV Mart?, included syndicated columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner, whose opinions appear in the pages of El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald.

"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," Corral writes.

"Pedro Roig, the director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting since 2003, said he has sought to improve the quality of news by, among other things, hiring more Cuban exile journalists as contractors. He said it's each journalist's responsibility to adhere to their own ethics and rules....

"Journalism ethics experts called the payments a fundamental conflict of interest. Such violations undermine the credibility of reporters to objectively cover key issues affecting U.S. policy toward Cuba, they said....

"The journalists involved are among the most popular in South Florida, and many were reporting on issues involving Radio or TV Mart? for their news organizations."