The Broadcasting Board of Governors will get an update on the operations and activities of its Office of Cuba Broadcasting at its board of governors meeting April. There should be a lot to talk about.
The Office of Cuba Broadcasting oversees Radio and TV Marti, the U.S. backed news operations.
The review comes as the U.S. has pivoted toward reestablishing a diplomatic and trade relationship with the country. It also comes in the wake of Cuban security officials' expulsion of a TV Marti reporter and cameraman from a press conference with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez at the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Panama earlier this month.
They were reportedly told to leave because the Cubans want "unbiased, serious press that wants unity." TV Marti, and its radio counterpart, were launched in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan to deliver an alternative news source to the Cuban government-controlled state media.
At the time, Carlos García Pérez, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, said Cuba's move was just another example of the lack of press freedom in the country. Pérez, among others, will be doing the "deep dive" in to Cuban broadcasting at the board meeting.
The review also will come only two days after the Committee to Protect Journalists releases its annual publication, Attacks on the Press, which includes the fact that Cuba is one of the 10 top countries at censoring journalists.
