Journalists paid to defame
the Cuban Five

• WASHINGTON, June 2.—U.S. groups working for the release of the five Cuban anti-terrorists incarcerated in that country today exposed details of covert payments made to journalists covering the case in Miami from December 1999 to December 2001, Notimex reports.

Heidi Boghosian, executive director of the National Lawyers Guild, informed a press conference of a concerted campaign to smear court procedures and influence the verdicts in the case of the Five. In that way "the accused were deprived of their right" to the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees the right to a fair trial and to an impartial jury, she pointed out.

There is no doubt that misleading articles and unfavorable accounts by reporters paid by the government had a direct impact on public opinion, the court and the Appeals Court in the case of the Cubans, she noted.

Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Five pointed out that payments to journalists by the government constitutes a "violation of the federal law that prohibits improper domestic propaganda." She stated that the payments to journalists in Miami were made by two U.S. agencies, the Cuba Broadcasting Board and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) for Radio and TV Martí.

What makes the secret payments most flagrant is that they were made by the very government (United States) which tried the Cuban five," she stated.

La Riva added that the largest TV and Radio Martí audience is inside the United States, in Miami, Florida" from where the jury was selected to hear the case of the Cubans, who were subsequently sentenced to prison terms ranging from 15 years to two life sentences.

"Although we have asked for information dating back to 1996, BBG only gave us information from November 1999" under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the activist noted.

She mentioned that Wilfredo Cancio, a reporter from the El Nuevo Herald daily, received $4,725 between September 30, 2000 and December 3, 2001.

La Riva also cited payments between 1999 and 2001 of $11,700 to Ariel Remos, from Diario de las Americas; $58,600 to journalist Pablo Alfonso; $5,200 to Enrique Encinosa, director of Radio Mambi; and $1,125 to Helen Ferré, editor of the opinion page at Diario de las Americas.

Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René were "irreparably harmed by the sea of prejudice generated in the Miami press," she said.

The press conference convenors announced that a coalition of organizations is to launch a campaign calling on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to take "immediate action" to free the Cuban Five.