U.S. study blasts Radio Marti

By JUAN O. TAMAYO
Herald Staff Writer

Radio Marti's management and outside overseers have been lax in overseeing the professionalism of its broadcasts to Cuba, and some of its programs lack balance and fairness, a lengthy U.S. government investigation has concluded.

``Overall, Radio Marti's internal practices and procedures have been lax, said a draft of a report by the Office of the Inspector General at the State Department, which has been investigating aspects of the radio station since as far back as 1993.

The report, which will be officially released in about three weeks, is the latest of many blows to Radio Marti, set up in 1983 to broadcast news and U.S. policies to Cuba but long plagued by allegations of bad journalism, political bias and internal bickering.

`Out of control'

``The station is out of control and very unprofessional, said Jay Mallin, who served as Radio Marti's first news director in the 1980s.

The inspector's report said Radio Marti management has long had problems keeping proper controls on broadcast quality, but that the problem grew somewhat worse after President Clinton named Miami lawyer Herminio San Roman to head the radio and television broadcast agency in early 1997.

San Roman cut the number of daily staff meetings that reviewed program quality and abolished focus-group discussions on new shows, the report noted, even as the station shifted toward more live, riskier broadcasts.

Less emphasis on controls

``Even though the internal controls that were in place [before 1997] did not always prevent mistakes . . . the new management, citing the need to streamline internal administration and to cut costs, placed much less emphasis on these internal control processes, the report said.

But San Roman began to reinstate those controls after inspector general investigators pointed out some of the problems last spring, the report noted.

The report also recommended that Radio Marti ``reengineer a system of internal reviews and controls, including an effective chain of command, and establish an efficient system for keeping track of programs and contents.

The State Department's International Broadcasting Bureau, tasked with supervising the ``daily direction'' of Radio Marti, also was lax in enforcing requirements for accuracy, objectivity and balance, the report said.

Need cited for program review

IBB officials, for their part, ``should develop a comprehensive system of program review . . . and follow up to ensure compliance on recommendations, added the report, obtained by The Herald.

San Roman declined to comment on the inspector general's report, saying it still needs final approval by the IBB, which commissioned the reviews.

``We will respond at the appropriate time, he said.

But an official close to Radio Marti management attacked the report.

``Obviously, some things needed improvement, but a lot of the complaints came from disgruntled employees who are no longer with us, the official said.

Meeting standards

The IBB requested the second report in 1997 to determine whether Radio Marti was meeting all requirements for foreign broadcasts. By law, Radio Marti programs must conform to the journalistic standards of the Voice of America, the main U.S. foreign broadcast station.

But the inquiry did not begin until last spring because of questions over whether an IBB or inspector general's review of the accuracy and fairness of Radio Marti broadcasts would amount to illegal censorship.

The IBB and inspector general's office eventually named an independent panel, headed by Florida International University journalism professor Charles Green, to examine 20 hours of randomly chosen programming and issue a report.

The panel reported late last year that some of the programs lacked balance, fairness, objectivity and sourcing, and recommended that Radio Marti staffers be given special training, according to the report.

Credibility an issue

``The problems identified centered around the credibility of news reports and professionalism, the inspector general's report said. ``We believe Radio Marti's deemphasis of internal controls may have contributed to the problems identified by the panelists.

The inspector general's reviews came as a new audience survey in four Cuban cities showed that Radio Marti's regular audience stood at 9 percent of those polled -- about half the figure reported by a similar poll in 1994.

A report on the survey, financed by the IBB's Office of Research, blamed the drop on jamming by the Cuban government and atmospheric conditions that interfere with reception of Radio Marti programs in Cuba.

No one polled reported having watched the more severely jammed TV Marti, the report said, and only 10 percent of respondents mentioned it when asked to name all the TV stations they knew.