Radio and TV Martí

The Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) oversees the operations of Radio and TV Martí from its headquarters in Miami, Florida. Radio and TV Martí serve as consistently reliable and authoritative sources of accurate, objective, and comprehensive news for people in Cuba, where media are controlled and highly censored by the authorities.

Radio Martí provides groundbreaking reporting on local events across Cuba, through its expanded outreach to a growing community of Cuban bloggers and independent journalists. Along with U.S. and world news, OCB’s hallmarks include human rights topics such as marches by the “Ladies in White” (relatives of political prisoners in Cuba) and the harassment and imprisonment of independent journalists by the Cuban government. Radio Martí broadcasts breaking news and analysis programs seven days a week, 24 hours a day by shortwave and medium wave.

TV Martí broadcasts 24 hours per day, seven days a week on the Hispasat satellite; two and a half hours per day, five days a week from a modified aircraft, AeroMartí, on VHF and UHF frequencies, and three hours per day, five days a week on DirecTV satellite. Approximately ten hours of original, contemporary, fast-paced TV programs are produced in-house weekly. In addition, Radio and TV Martí are streamed live at Martínoticias.com.

These broadcasts face Cuban government jamming as well as press censorship and intimidation. Audience surveys, which must be done by telephone rather than face-to-face interviews can provide only a limited perspective on audience levels, given that less than a fifth of Cuban adults have published phone numbers and that interviewees may be wary of admitting in a telephone call to listening to or watching the Martís. Interviews with Cubans who have recently arrived in the U.S. provide anecdotal information of higher audience rates than reflected in the telephone surveys.”

2012 Highlights

• Held an audience context to raffle off six mopeds donated by Cuban-Americans. More than 2,600 Cubans contact Marti by phone, e-mail, Twitter or subscribe to Facebook for a chance to win.
• Launched Estado SATS, the first program in the history of Radio and TV Martí to be produced entirely in Cuba.   The Emmy nominated program is the brainchild of Dr. Antonio Rodiles, a U.S. educated physicist who returned to Cuba.  Rodiles was arrested for his pro-democracy efforts in November of 2012 but vowed to continue with his project after being released.
• Martinoticias.com set a record with over 18,000 daily visitors during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba.  The average number of daily unique visitors to martinoticias.com has increased more than 1,000% in the last two years.
• In the second quarter of FY 2012, the Martís were the number one federal agency in terms of retweets, according to OhMyGov, Inc. which dubbed the Martí audience as the most engaged on Twitter.
• Debuted a new program “Antena Live” a half-hour newscast presented by Karen Caballero and Vanessa Ruiz.  The program is a dynamic, quick-paced, rundown of the day’s most important events.
• Produced Hacia La Democracia (Toward Democracy) with the Albert Einstein Institute, a how-to-guide for transitioning from dictatorship to democracy, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.
• Established the most extensive network, to date, of freelance reporters inside Cuba yielding quick results with exposés on Cuba’s health and educational systems and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Earlier Highlights

For more information about Radio and TV Martí, click here.