Effectiveness of U.S. broadcasts to Cuba questioned

After decades on the air and the expense of half a billion dollars, it remains unclear whether any Cubans listen to or watch U.S.-funded radio and television broadcasts to the island, according to a new congressional report on Radio and TV Martí released Wednesday.

Last year, less than 1 percent of people surveyed said they had listened to Radio Martí in the past week, said the study by the Government Accountability Office, the investigating arm of Congress. But the same report said nearly half of new Cuban arrivals to the United States said they had listened to the broadcasts in the past six months. The telephone survey of at least 1,200 Cubans was conducted from March 2008 through January 2009.

Although the GAO report states that programming has improved and praised its management, it said broadcasts are often biased and fail to adhere to journalistic standards.

Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, questioned the listener surveys because even the pollsters acknowledged that Cubans who responded to survey calls believed the surveyor was a member of the Cuban government -- and Radio Martí is illegal in Cuba.

''You have people surveyed on the telephone saying nobody listens to it and recent arrivals showing five million people are listening to Radio Martí,'' Roig said. ''You can take both with a grain of salt.''

The report comes on the heels of public criticisms by high-profile Cuban dissidents, including Martha Beatriz Roque who said the station was not airing dissidents' reports of human rights abuses on the island and urged its broadcasters to ''report from the heart.''

The U.S. government spends $34 million a year on the Miami-based radio and television station with the aim of breaking Cuba's lock on information, but the frequencies that bring information to the closed society are constantly jammed by the Cuban government.

''Rather than spend funds on another study, they should use the money upgrading the technology so Radio Martí transmissions can get into more homes,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami.

Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who requested the GAO report, said the study underscores the need for congressional hearings.

''How do we know we are getting a return on the investment?'' Delahunt said. ''I challenge you to find anyone who has watched TV Martí. It's a TV station in search of an audience.''

In a written statement responding to the report, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the Radio and TV Martí operations, said in general it agrees with the report's conclusions and recommendations, but stressed that the government's restrictions make it extremely difficult to measure its audience.

Roig said Roque's suggestion that they report more emotionally is exactly what the station avoids in order to create a professional, respected news broadcast.

''I reject the notion that we are biased,'' Roig said. ''If somebody listens to Radio Martí, they will find highly professional dedicated journalists. During the campaign, there was plenty of criticism of President Bush, and we put them on the air.''

Hugo Landa, director of a website that posts independent reports from Cuba, said surveys conducted in Cuba are unreliable and that the Martí broadcasts were an important source for outside news.

''We have independent reports from Cuba that people do listen to Radio Martí,'' said Landa, director of Coral Gables-based CubaNet (www.cubanet.org). ''It's difficult, but people do listen . . . It is one of the few ways people have to get information other than the official propaganda.''

The television broadcasts, he said, are less successful.