This is in response to the article “Culture clash puts media in spotlight; Miami newspaper’s handling of journalists with links to Marti shows 2 worldviews” (News, Dec. 14), by Andrew Zajac, Chicago Tribune national correspondent.
We were appalled by and reject the statements attributed to Ivette Leyva, a Cuban-American and former producer at Spanish-language WJAN-Ch. 41 in Miami, who now works at TV Marti, who was quoted in the story as saying the following:
“We don’t believe in impartiality and objectivity. We don’t exercise American journalism. We exercise Latin American journalism.”
Let’s be clear:
Leyva neither speaks for nor represents the men and women who daily produce and broadcast Radio and Television Marti’s programs to Cuba.
Our journalists practice and are dedicated to the highest standards of American journalism, including objectivity, accuracy and balance.
They adhere strictly to the additionally stringent editorial guidelines of the Voice of America.
We, as journalists and employees of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, find her statement offensive not only to us but to the many Latin American journalists who have been imprisoned, murdered and or tortured for being objective and impartial.
Leyva has not only done a great and undeserved disservice to the men and women who make up Radio and Television Marti, but she has also done a great disservice to all the objective Latin American journalists, the American taxpayer and the United States Congress who have established this institution to bring unbiased and objective information to an oppressed island.
