On 2 June the U.S. National Committee to Free the Cuban Five had a major press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC in which let them know by Gloria la Riva, the National Coordinator of the Committee on a claim brought against the National Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an autonomous federal government responsible for all transmissions from the U.S. government or funded by that government.

The National Committee also made public the names and payments made by the BBG to a number of journalists in Miami, before and during the trial to the five in this city from November 2000 to June 2001. Likewise, the National Committee reported on the start of an international campaign demanding that the U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder based on the question of these payments, giving justice to the immediate release of the Five: Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, who attended the press conference, co-founder of Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, an association of non-profit attorneys, announced that the claim brought against the BBG came to this entity refusing to give the National Committee, as law requires information requested by him on payments made by the BBG, from 1996 to 1999, journalists who cover issues related to Cuba.

This information would show that the BBG and the Office for transmission to Cuba (Office of Cuba Broadcasting), which is part of the BBG and manages the transmissions of Radio Marti and TV Marti, which aims to subvert the constitutional order in Cuba, the make these payments violated federal law, specifically the Smith-Mundt  Act of 1948 - which prohibits the use of propaganda BBG created or funded by the federal government within U.S. borders

According to Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild (National Lawyers Guild), also present at the press conference, "the payment to these journalists suggests the existence of a plan to subvert the judicial proceedings and the jury's decision to tilt toward guilty verdicts. " This makes the federal government - represented at trial by the prosecution, guilty of jury tampering even before the trial started, through breaking the constitutional provision guaranteeing a fair trial any accused framed by the Sixth Amendment.

The Panel of the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in August 2005 unanimously overturned the trial of the Five and ordered a new trial, so it was based on what he described as "a seditious and prejudicial publicity before and during the trial that saturated the community in a way that was virtually impossible to have a fair trial.”

Research by the National Committee, made public in the press conference, shows payments made by the BBG to several Miami reporters for alleged work done by them to Radio Marti and TV Marti, during the arrest of the Five and during their trial. These journalists are: Pablo Alfonso, was working for El Nuevo Herald, and received $ 58, 600; Wilfredo Cancio Isla, working for El Nuevo Herald, and received $ 4, 725; Enrique Encinosa, works for Radio Mambi, and received $ 5, 200, and Ariel Remos-worked for Diario Las Americas, and also received $ 4,725.

These are only the payments received by these honorable professionals during the course of the arrest and trial of the Five. In addition, between 1999 and 2007, the BBG paid Pablo Alfonso a total of $ 252, 325; between 1999 and 2006, it paid to Wilfredo Cancio Isla $ 21, 800, in the same period, the BBG the paid Ariel Remos $ 24, 350, and Enrique Encinosa between 1999 and the BBG in 2003 paid him $ 10, 410.
The community became saturated with this propaganda in part demonstrated by the investigation carried out by the National Committee as well as by our friend and colleague Salvador Capote. In his valuable article in October 2009, "The Five and covert propaganda," Capote maintains: "... in the media of Miami in the period since 27 November 2000 until 8 June 2001 which corresponds to the time elapsed since the start of the judicial process against the Five until they were found guilty by the jury, incredibly enough, in those 194 days, El Nuevo Herald published 806 articles that could adversely affect the judicial process, not counting hundreds of firms selected news agencies (AP, Reuters, France Press, Associated Press) loaded equally biased information against Cuba and the Cuban Five.

At that same time The Miami Herald published 305 articles with the same features, without also with numerous offices of news agencies, but almost exclusively from the Associated Press.

In total, only these two newspapers, during those 194 days, 1.111 articles were published, an average of more than five per day, which can give an idea of media saturation was subjected Miami on issues related to the Five.

!joomlacomment 4.0 Copyright (C) 2009 Compojoom.com . All rights reserved."