• Submitted by: manso
• United States
• Politics and Government
• 08 / 28 / 2010

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Radio/TV Martí director Pedro Roig resigned Friday after more than seven years at the head of the often controversial U.S. government stations that broadcast to Cuba.

``We have, most certainly, achieved the goals of bringing the news and information to the Cuban people,'' Roig, a 69-year-old lawyer, wrote in his resignation letter.

The twin stations have spent an estimated $500 million over the years broadcasting news and entertainment to Cuba, but they have been dogged by complaints of meager audiences, biased politics and journalism and cronyism.

Roig was not available for comment Friday and there was no immediate word on who would replace him.

``I hereby submit my resignation from the position of Director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), effective Sept. 1, 2010 or at the Board's timely convenience,'' Roig wrote.

Roig's letter ticked off a series of achievements under his watch, from increasing Radio Martí's signal strength to upgrading its website and adding satellite and airborne transmission capabilities for television broadcasts.

An April-May survey of Cubans interviewed within six months of their arrival in the United States showed 43 percent said they had listened to Radio Martí and 6.5 percent said they saw TV Martí, the letter added.

The letter was addressed to Walter Isaacson, chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the government agency that supervises all U.S. international broadcasters such as Voice of America.

His resignation came a week after Miami journalist Rui Ferreira wrote in his blog, Herejías y Caipirinhas, that Roig had been fired. Roig flatly denied that report, but acknowledged to friends in private that he was burned out with the job and the politics involved.

The twin stations have been highly controversial since their founding -- the radio in 1983 and television in 1990 -- as a way of getting information past the Cuban government's monopoly on news.

Cuba effectively jams TV Martí over-the-air broadcasts, but the station also broadcasts by satellite, and the radio transmits on AM as well as shortwave frequencies.

Some leading Cuban dissidents sent Washington a letter early last year criticizing the stations' programming and complaining they were not covering opposition activities on the island well enough.

``The programming is so bad and so boring for the Cuban people that no one listens to it,'' dissident Vladimiro Roca, acting as spokesman for the group, told El Nuevo Herald at the time.

U.S. Congress members critical of the broadcasts have long tried to cut back the station's budget, and in August of last year, Roig cut 35 jobs, or 22 percent of his staff. About 20 workers were dismissed, and the other cuts came from voluntary departures and unfilled jobs.

A congressional report published in early 2009 and based on a poll carried out by telephone from the United States said less than 1 percent of Cubans heard or watched the transmission.

Several congressional reports over the years have also complained that the stations did not adhere to U.S. or VOA standards of journalism and their broadcasts were too blatantly political.

Noting that he arrived in the United States in 1960 ``as a young political exile from Cuba,'' Roig wrote in his resignation letter that he was ``proud to have served the American people, and my beloved Cuba.''

BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
[email protected]

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