Miami Herald publisher will resignBY MARTIN MERZER
October 3, 2006
Jesús Díaz Jr. will resign today as president of the Miami Herald Media Co. and publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.
The action comes amid a widening controversy over payments accepted by some El Nuevo Herald journalists for participating in U.S.-government broadcasts on Radio Martí and TV Martí.
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In a letter to readers, Díaz said the company is reversing course and will grant ''amnesty'' to two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance contributor who were dismissed Sept. 7 when The Miami Herald reported that they received payments under contracts with Radio Martí and TV Martí.
He also said that an internal probe determined that six other employees of the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald received payments from Radio Martí and TV Martí during the past five years. No disciplinary action will be taken against them.
None of the nine or anyone else at the company can accept money from the U.S. government-run broadcasters in the future, Díaz said, and conflict-of-interest policies will be strengthened throughout the company.
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Four of the six newly identified El Nuevo Herald employees said their activities at Radio Martí and TV Martí -- broadcast operations that attempt to undermine the Cuban communist government of Fidel Castro -- had been approved by Carlos Castañeda, an executive editor of El Nuevo Herald who died in 2002.
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Díaz indicated that he believed the series of events, which have roiled the newsrooms of both newspapers and ignited heated debate in the Cuban-American community, left him in an untenable position.
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It began about three weeks ago when The Miami Herald reported that several South Florida journalists -- including two veteran writers for El Nuevo Herald, Pablo Alfonso and Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who often write about Cuba, and freelance reporter Olga Connor -- accepted regular payments from the U.S. government-run broadcasters over the past five years.
The Miami Herald reported that since 2001 Alfonso was paid about $179,000, Connor received about $71,000 and Cancio received almost $15,000. Díaz swiftly dismissed the two El Nuevo Herald writers and severed the company's relationship with Connor.
That decision triggered outrage among many in the Cuban-American community who responded by canceling subscriptions, urging an advertiser boycott and attacking Díaz, Miami Herald journalists and the newspapers' editors in letters, e-mails and on other media.
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El Nuevo Herald later reported that some journalists for U.S. news organizations also were paid by another U.S. government agency, the Voice of America, and quoted a government spokesman suggesting that a double standard was being applied to those working for Radio Martí and TV Martí.
Some in The Miami Herald newsroom and several journalism ethicists quoted in the original story supported the terminations and said the actions of the El Nuevo Herald writers violated commonly accepted standards guiding journalists in avoiding conflicts of interest.
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A letter to readers from Jesús DíazJesús Díaz Jr.
October 3, 2006
Just over two weeks ago, I wrote about our dismissal of two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance writer who did a significant amount of work for us while simultaneously working for and being paid by Radio and TV Martí. I explained that I approved of the dismissals because I am deeply committed to the separation of government and a free press and because the employees violated our conflict of interest rules.
We cannot compromise principles that protect the free press from government intrusion. I well understand that totalitarian governments, such as Fidel Castro's regime, cannot exist in a country that enjoys a free press. This separation and the adherence by our employees to our conflict of interest rules are also essential for us to sustain our transparency and ensure that editors and reporters will continue to function as impartial and independent watchdogs in our community. Our readers deserve and should expect nothing less.
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While I still believe that the acceptance of such payments by the nine journalists was a breach of widely accepted principles of journalistic ethics that violated the trust of our readers, our policies prohibiting such behavior were ambiguously communicated, inconsistently applied and widely misunderstood over many years in the El Nuevo Herald newsroom. It has been determined that in fairness we should extend an amnesty to all involved and enforce our policies more forcefully and consistently in the future. Those who were dismissed will be allowed to return to El Nuevo Herald, and the six newly identified employees will not be disciplined. They cannot accept money from Radio or TV Martí, and their executive editor must expressly approve any future appearances in writing.
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I realize and regret that the events of the past three weeks have created an environment that no longer allows me to lead our newspapers in a manner most beneficial for our newspapers, our readers and our community. Therefore, I informed our parent company of my intention to resign as soon as my replacement could be found. The decision has been made to name David Landsberg, our general manager, and someone I am proud to have worked with, as my replacement as president of Miami Herald Media Company and publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, effective immediately. David is a good man, and he will serve our newspapers, our readers and our community well.
I want to thank our employees for the support they have given me over the last four years and for the results we have achieved, first in my position as General Manager in charge of our business operations and for the past 14 eventful months as publisher of our newspapers. We did some outstanding journalistic work over the past year, and I will dearly miss the ability to encourage and support such work directly. I wish our employees well as they continue to serve the South Florida community through the difficult task of putting out two world-class newspapers.
It has been an honor to serve you.
And this little story was published at about the same time:
http://www2.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI29298/">Bush administration proposing Cuban vote on democracySeptember 15, 2006
Associated Press
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- The Bush administration proposed Friday that Cubans hold a referendum to decide if they want to live in a democracy or under a dictatorship, a plan one expert called a "Disneyesque fantasy" that the Castro brothers would reject.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez suggested the referendum, but Cuban President Fidel Castro has long fiercely resisted any U.S. attempts to interfere with his government. As Castro recovers from surgery, brother and designated successor Raul is the acting leader of the communist nation.
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John Kavulich, a senior policy adviser for the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, called the idea of a referendum "Disneyesque" and absurd.
"It is not going to happen. The U.S. government must come to terms with the fact that a succession has already taken place in Cuba, and the transition has already begun," Kavulich said at the conference.
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