money. on the educators side, i would love to see the teachers doing more with this as well. >> we are about out of time. thank you very much to our panel and our guests for being here. this is a conversation. and thank you to the audience. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> tonight, a look back at bill

clinton's run for the white house. he is joined by former advisers and strategist for a discussion in little rock, ark., at 8:00 p.m. eastern. after that, we will show the cnn presidential debates from earlier this week. eight of the republican candidates gathered in washington, d.c., to talk about national security and the economy. that starts at about 9:20 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> this week on "the communicators," a discussion about u.s.-government sponsored broadcasts into cuba. our guest is carlos garcia- perez, director of cuba broadcasting. he oversees radio and tv marti. >> this is week 3 of our look at government-sponsored broadcasting. this week, a look at radio and tv marti, with carlos garcia- perez, the director of the

office of cuba broadcasting. matt lee of the associated press is our guest reporter. first, what is the purpose of radio and tv marti? >> thank you for inviting me here. our effort is to give the free flow of information to the people inside of cuba, and we did that on very broad terms, including programs, news, and we're very interactive with our audience. >> where are you based? how many employees, but it? >> we are based in at miami, approximately 126 employees. our budget this year is $28.5 million, broken down into different components. we are in miami. we also have reporters in washington, new york, we have stringers in different parts of atlanta, the content of countries that we deem relevant

to our audience. >> how do you get the broadcasts into cuba, what method? >> radio, we use a.m. we have a re-transmission station and marathon, fla.. we use shortwave. we use a direct tv satellite, we have an airplane, and we also use non-traditional methods to get our tv content to the island, which have been very successful in the last month, month and a half. >> such as? >> flash drives and dvd's. we have done 23 focus groups ou. i have been there a year and a week. people in cuba of really want news. they definitely want news.

when they seek news, relevant to the focus group, they mentioned the martis. it is a source of reliable news for them, but they also watch tv using ddt and flash drives. -- using dvd and flash drives. cuban security is always watching, what you are watching tv or listening to radio marti. the flash drive and dvd's are a good way to bring the men. them are they smuggle then? >> we did not smuggle them and. we are in contact with people inside cuba constantly. we send them to our audience. people who call led to our sports show. we got a call from an audience member. he had seen game 6 and 7 of the

world series. we were delighted to hear that. >> you have all of these different methods. what kind of reached out to you have been to cuba? >> that is a good question, and something i wanted to do to measure our success as an institution. by the phone calls that we get, the emails that we get, the replies to the text messages that we get, the increased participation we have seen it in our programs, we know that we have been successful. the other component is we have seen the cuban government react to a lot of our initiatives as of the last two, three months. that actually had an array of tv antennas and satellite dishes the last week, the week before. it is very difficult to scientifically measure the audience because we cannot walk around cuba with a clipboard asking whether they watched.

but that is how we know. we're very happy with the results. >> mr. garcia, one more question, then we will turn it over to war reporter, but how do you conduct focus groups? project to war reporter, but how we conduct focus groups? >> we are located in miami, but we service a market outside of the city, cuba, and we focus on cuba. we started to do focus groups of recent arrivals into miami, to understand the daily lives of our audience. we cannot operate in a vacuum. we need to know how they get their food, we need to know how they listen to radio, we need to know how they use internet, cell phones. we have done extensive research on the understanding our audience, which has caused us to change some of our programs and the way that we broadcast news. our news is relevant to our

audience in cuba. >> i want to get back to the idea of audience penetration and how you know that the money that is budgeted, that the product of that is getting to the people in cuba. i did not think anybody can argue it is not a good idea to transmit unbiased news into cuba, but the last time i am aware of there was a study done was in a report two years ago, predating arrival, that found less than 1% of the cuban population was able to see the television marti or hear radio marti. because of the cuban jamming of the signals. have you seen any change of that? when you talk about the focus groups with recent arrivals, are are convinced those groups ou

giving an accurate assessment that the audience is larger than the 1%? >> before i took this job, i read all of those reports. i looked at that as my basis. let me start with the focus groups. the focus groups, we are not asking them whether they listen and watch radio and tv marti. we are exploring an understanding the daily lives of our audience. my previous comment was based on the fact that unsolicited and irrelevant to the focus group or the pocket of that focus group, generally they say they get their news from radio and tv marti, more from radio and tv. how do we know that people are

listening and watching? it is based on what i have expressed. there are surveys. in 2010, we did research that showed 40% of the listeners were people that we asked listen to radio marti during the last year they were in cuba, 6% on tv. it is a challenge, like in north korea, right, but that is why we have become a multimedia platform. we try to get our message any way that we can. we have a government that does not want people to obtain information. we are doing that, i believe, successfully. i am at the station long hours. we see the reaction from people. you see them participate on our shows. >> does that mean that somehow

the jamming of the signal has somewhat lessened it, or people have a way around this? i know that you have extensive internet web presence, but i would imagine what the internet restrictions in cuba, a major audience for that is probably cuban exiles in miami who have much greater access to the internet than they do in cuba. how do you tell whether people in cuba are seeing your stuff online? >> a may comment on the internet. -- let me comment on the internet. the internet, a majority does not come from the united states. when you look at the servers that are accessing our website, the majority is from the united states, but the second and third and fourth countries are spain, canada, argentina, and mexico. those are the last rankings i saw. >> but those are not cuban exiles. >> no, it is my understanding

that it is easier for them to access those servers from within cuba. it is also a very strong campaign on proxy sites that we promote on normal platforms. people in cuba cannot access our web site, in cryptic, and the cuban government cannot follow what they're doing because of the restrictions. you had another question, how to make sure i answer. -- i want to make sure i answer. >> it was along the same lines. how do you quantify the improvement in your audience in cuba itself? this would mainly be related to the broadcast of both radio and television. >> you mentioned it jamming. has it gotten worse?

i don't know. we don't react with the cuban government does. we have a strategy. we deliver our content. that is what we care about. we have shows that i am in my office listening, and our talent task to ask the person calling in, please lower your volume because we are getting feedback. that is telling. >> and these are calls from cuba? >> absolutely. we focus on cuba and we focus on the people of cuba. that is who we target. we give them news and programs. >> you mentioned some negative reactions from the cuban government in the last couple months, including the rating of television equipment places. is there anything to suggest there have been slight moves in liberalizing of the economy, allowing people to sell used

cars, allowing farmers to sell directly to some hotels, that kind of thing? is there anything that you can point to recent positive reactions, but we would consider positive actions, by the cuban government in terms of reform related to your broadcasts, perhaps people's demand for these changes? >> we have reported on these changes. what we have noticed is the legalization of selling cars, for example, is something that was going on inside the island. all they did was legalize any legal activity. buying or selling a home in cuba was difficult, but they were getting around it. they had to legalize that also. we have seen is civil society, i like to call it our audience, the civil society in cuba has pushed the government. that is what we have seen. that is what we are reporting.

they have made these reforms, and that is what we're reporting on. in terms of allowing them to watch us or listen to us, that has not gotten any better. we went to a conference last friday were there was a cuban diplomat there, and our reporter very nicely approached the gentlemen to interview him. he would shut down by a professor from the university -- he was shot down by a professor from the university. but we work with that. we are providing the free flow of information to our audience and that is what we focus on. >> a lot of people will talk about al-jazeera in arabic and its impact on the arab spring in the middle east and north africa, and it is not perhaps fomenting the unrest, but it is giving the people in that

region and sanitized, non- government news. is their role for radio and tv marti to drive changes in cuba, perhaps a fact -- perhaps a fact a government to change -- perhaps effect a government to change? >> aside from the reforms, we have seen more unrest this year than last year. that is not because the regime is more aggressive. it is because more people are coming out and protesting they cannot have a say. that is the kind of facts that we are reporting inside the island, to allow them to make a decision, independent, educated decision. >> this is "the communicators." , carlos garcia-

progress. i want to follow-up on matt's question, the jamming. how sophisticated are our methods and how sophisticated are the key the methods to prevent the broadcast from reaching the island? >> when i first got there, my impression is they knew who was going to catch the ball and was going to run the ball. i don't think they know that any more. that is what we focused on. very focused on transmissions. they still try to jam us. there ought are still noises on some of our frequency, depending on the time of day and the atmosphere. our audience, and we do that constantly. >> what is the most popular

programming that you have? is it sports? >> sports is very popular. they really want to hear the news, but we have to put it in perspective. to listen or watched the martis in cuba is a crime. we have to be good so that somebody will take the risk. sports is very popular, and the news, which has come up on the focus groups repeatedly as something that is very popular. >> let's take a look at one of your newscasts, and then we will talk about it.

ok, the lead story was about the pope. if you could explain that to us? >> the show, we are providing the news, seven days, 30 minutes. this is very appealing to our audience. 30 minutes, they know what has been going on seven days. you have to eat every day, you have to feed your family. this is very convenient. in 30 minutes, they get good production values, a good show, and we tell them what is going on in the world. >> so it is perhaps a little different from voice of america,

which broadcasts the things about the u.s. into these other countries. you are broadcasting news about cuba into cuba, correct? >> correct, but we also report news about the united states. it is important that we do that. more so than that, we broadcast news about latin america and the rest of the world. i think it is important for our audience to understand there are countries that are sovereign and free, democratic, and there is a future. we want to insert our audience into the economic world again. the relationship between cuba and the united states, it is a no-brainer. there are 90 miles away, but we also want them to know what is going on in the rest of the world. we think it is something important. it is a global village now, right? >> what percentage of it is

cuban news in the broadcast? >> that is the priority, as much as we can get. >> how do you get it? >> we have had relationships with people inside the island report to was different incidents -- report to us at different incidents that are going on. it is almost like a citizens- based news gathering. >> but there have been incidents where the cuban government has planted wild stories with radio and television marti, which are then reported as news which were not true. the gao report from two years ago gave mentioned of some standards that were not quite up to par. one, have those problems that

the gao identified been addressed, and second, how do you respond with the cuban government's claim that sometimes your stations are a little gullible in reporting things they have made up? >> we had here to very strict journalism standards -- we had here to very strict journalism standards, double-sourcing reporters. in an environment like cuba, that is very tough. i come from the outside. i have sat in the editorial meetings. they make a good effort to get it done, and they do not put it on the air unless they have good confirmation. we had someone call to the station saturday night and say he was an agent. we have nothing to hide. all we reported was somebody

came out, they did a great job. it will happen. that is the type of environment that our news works and. -- that is the type of environment that our news works in. we are very careful with it. we do not hide it. i said put the recording on the website. people should know that. >> mr. garcia, is any of your news that you broadcast about cuba pro-castro? is it all anti-castro? is there a balance there, or does it all veered towards propaganda? >> that is a good question. what they get from the cuban government, everything is fine, cuba is the greatest thing in the world.

we're not propaganda. we give them hard news. when something good that happens, and i emphasize win, we provide that. they rely on us to get truthful and objective information. >> do you think that radio and tv marti should be available for u.s. citizens to listen? >> it is available through the internet now. buit is kind of difficult, becae there is so much change in communication and the distribution of contact. radio and tv marti is not focused on the u.s. we are really focused on the island. every morning, we've with up and say, how are we going to deliver this message to the island. >> what is your background? >> i was a trial lawyer for 20

to rico. puertr >> for you politically active? >> i was not politically active, but i was in the future of cuba. >> are you cubist? >> -- are you cuban? >> i was born in miami, but i cuba.ut inup in i moved my family in december to miami, and i am having a wonderful time. it is a gratifying jobs. i appreciate the opportunity. we have a great board that supports everything that we're doing, and it has been tremendous. >> one of the issues about the broadcasting board of governors is potentially moving radio and tv marti to washington, making

it more part of a whole rather than a separate entity. what do you think of that? >> the strategy now, as i understand it, is to move out our broadcast closer to the audience. as i understand the strategy now, the martis will become the hub of the latin america strategy for the broadcast group. we are focused on cuba, but we will be also be sharing with voa, which we do now which is great. >> i want to ask about alan gross, the american contractor that has been imprisoned on espionage charges. how has that played into your reporting, if at all? is this a topic that you cover often? it has become quite a cause

celeb,. >> sure, mr. allen gross was put in jail. i have never seen an appeal or trowel go so fast. we are very conscious of it. we follow what it. we did not talk about it all the time because we're not propaganda. but we are very aware of it and we try to obtain as much fax as we can on the case. >> getting back to the broader question of the bbg, along with the other components, we're looking at a very difficult budget situation coming up. no agency is likely to escape. i presume that you would argue that radio and television marti are worth the investment. how can you demonstrate that two members of congress, -- how can

you demonstrate that to the members of congress, who outside of the anti-castro lawmakers who will support anything designed to go against the regime, how do you convince them that your service is necessary and good for u.s. foreign policy or good for the cuban people? >> that is a very good question. one of the things that i have done since i got here, part of the bbg strategy, i have met with numerous representatives on the hill, not only the cuban- americans that give us great support, because i think the work we are doing needs to get out. i am in washington like every week. they think it is every day, but it is almost every week. i am getting the word out. i used to defend clients. i do not need to defend the martis.

they're a very valuable asset. we're doing great work there. we have great professionals who were there before i got there. it is an honor and privilege to belong to that organization and to lead it. i have no issue defending our budget. i think once i have all of the efficiencies in place and i have a better understanding in delivering the content, we may need more money. i think it is that valuable. >> in our discussions, they talked a lot about social media. is that available in cuba? have you started to use it? >> it is, but it is very limited. there are some bloogers, there is facebook activity, twitter activity. we have found out about things up through text messaging and twitter. they're using it more, there are still restrictions on the internet.

it is still an issue. what we try to do, because we are a multimedia platform, we want our regular listeners to understand what a blooger is, because they need to know what is out there, they need to know about facebook, twitter. we teach the audience, look, this is how you twet, this is how you send a text message to the outside world. >> how did you see the future of radio and tv marti? haverous administration's won it cuba -- have wanted castor to fall into the caribbean, but has not happened. d.c. a teacher for radio and tv marti after castro? -- the uc a future for radio and tv marti after