Propaganda Campaign Fund by Washington Uncovered*
August 11th, 2011
Recent documents released by a request made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by US National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and the Liberation newspaper showed that the US government paid journalists to orchestrate an aggressive campaign of lies against the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters during their rigged trial, Prensa Latina news agency reports.
More than 2,200 pages of contracts between Miami journalists and the right-wing anti-Cuban Radio and TV Marti were uncovered through a request submitted by these organizations.
The documents comprise US government payrolls containing the names of reporters who worked in the newspapers The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, Diario Las Américas, and in Miami-based TV and radio stations during the trial of the Cuban anti-terrorist fighters by US authorities.
The papers revealed that the US government was secretly paying notable journalists through its official propaganda agency, Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), to flood the media with highly biased and provocative reports about the Cuban Five, the Cubaminrex website reads.
According to a note released by the US solidarity group, there are some new requests made by the National Committee, the Liberation newspaper and the PCJF to the US government to release other documents which will further prove Washington’s illegal policy.
An example everybody can see in the reportersforHire.org website is the case of Enrique Encinosa, who has defended the attacks on Cuban hotels with bombs.
Encinosa was employed by the US government while he worked as an "independent" news director at a Spanish-speaking radio station operated by Miami’s extreme right.
The note reads that Encinosa bragged in an Internet radio interview about his involvement with paramilitary groups whose main target was the Cuban Revolution.
According to the FOIA, he received up to USD $10,400 to host a weekly radio show on Miami-based anti-Cuban Radio Martí Station from October 1st, 2000 to September 30, 2001. During which time he covered the Cuban Five trial which lasted from November 27, 2000 to June 8, 2001.
The presence of Miami journalists – who intended to report on the trial as "independent" press-, on the payrolls of the US government is intrinsically inserted in the unjust sentences given to the Cuban Five, who were not only victims of an accusation based on political reasons, but who were also the victims of a propaganda campaign by the US government.
* Url:http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art0036.html
