Miami daily fires reporters paid by US anti-Castro broadcaster

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Three reporters for Miami's main Spanish language daily were fired for receiving money from the US government to appear on its anti-Fidel Castro broadcasting operations, the Miami Herald reported Friday.

The three Nuevo Herald reporters were among ten prominent Miami journalists shown to have received thousands of dollars from the US government for appearing on broadcasts by Radio Marti and TV Marti, which the US government operates to promote democracy in Cuba and undermine Castro's communist regime. The programs beamed at Cuba cannot be aired in the United States under US anti-propaganda legislation.

According to the Miami Herald -- the Nuevo Herald's English language sister paper -- Pablo Alfonso, who reported on Cuba for the Nuevo Herald, was paid almost 175,000 dollars to host shows for Radio and TV Marti since 2001.

Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who covered the Cuban exile community for the Nuevo Herald, earned 15,000 dollars over the past five years from the US government, the report said.

And freelance reporter Olga Connor, who writes about Cuban culture for the newspaper, received 71,000 dollars, it said.

Cuba has long alleged that Cuban-American reporters in Miami are paid pawns of Washington, and the Miami Herald said its investigations revealed a total of 10 Miami journalists, many of them highly popular among the Cuban exile community, were paid by the US government for similar contributions to the broadcaster.

Jesus Diaz, the publisher of both the Miami Herald and the Nuevo Herald, said the payments violated "a sacred trust" between journalists and the public.

"I don't believe that integrity and objectivity can be assured if any of our reporters receive monetary compensation from any entity that he or she may cover or have covered, but particularly if it's a government agency."

The Miami Herald and the Nuevo Herald are published by the McClatchy Company group, which bought the Knight Ridder group, owner of the two papers, in June.

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AFP 081801 GMT 09 06