Employees at Radio/TV Martí say Biden admin is censoring them to placate the Cuban dictatorship

According to employees at Radio/TV Martí, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting is firing employees and ordering others to stop using words such as “dictatorship” when reporting on the Castro regime.

Vanessa Vallejo reports in El American:

Censorship at Radio TV Martí? Employees of the Historic TV Station Talk About Possible Mass Dismissals

According to confidential information accessed by El American, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which oversees Radio Television Martí, has a list of between 25 and 30 federal employees who could soon be fired from that channel. Since November 2020, right on the brink of the controversial presidential elections, several dozen contractors have been laid off.

At first glance, the matter seems to be a consequence of the budget cuts to be made by the current administration. However, employees and former employees explained to El American that there is strong censorship in the channel and that the budget cut would be one of the numerous measures that have been implemented for months, which would intend to seek to silence both those who discomfort the Cuban regime and those from the United States who are interested in resuming relations with the oldest dictatorship in the hemisphere.

An employee of Radio Television Martí, who asked not to be identified, explained to El American that he has been instructed not to use the word “dictatorship” in reports and audiovisual products in general. He assured that he also cannot use the word “regime” and, instead, has been asked to use the word “government” to refer to Castro’s tyranny. Likewise, the word “dictator” is forbidden and the word “president” must be used, according to our source.

“What they tell you had happened during the administration of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, which ended in 2017. Colleagues related to me how they were censored back then. The budget is a pretext, an alibi, an old trick of the socialist clique that has done so much harm to the dream of the visionary Jorge Más Canosa and the great Ronald Reagan,” Luis Leonel León, a former OCB contractor who worked for years at Radio Televisión Martí, commented to El American.

Radio Televisión Martí has been since its creation a space that is supposed to be dedicated to showing not only Cubans, but the American people and the entire world, the truth of what is happening on the island under a regime that has been in power for decades. The statements and testimonies of employees and former employees about an environment of censorship that would be an “open secret” are of great concern to the entire Cuban community and to the defenders of freedom of expression.

Another source contacted by El American pointed out that the cut in funds is functional to continue firing people who are uncomfortable with the interests of the Castro regime. He also assured that what is being experienced in the working environment of the channel is “fear.”

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