Radio Marti Reporter Pulled Off Beat for Query to Reagan

A Radio Marti reporter who quizzed President Reagan at his news conference said today the U.S. government station yanked her off the White House beat and threatened to fire her because “the National Security Council didn’t like my question.”

Cuban-born Annette Lopez-Munoz said she was told by one of her editors: “ ‘You’re through as a White House correspondent. You are not to go to the White House. You’re really in trouble. We’re considering firing you.’ ”

Radio Marti was created by the Reagan Administration to broadcast programs to Cuba and Central America, and Lopez-Munoz, who used to work for the Miami Herald, was the first government reporter in history allowed to ask a question at a presidential news conference.

Lopez-Munoz said that she thought she was operating as a reporter and asked: “Would you consider breaking diplomatic relations with Nicaragua to increase the pressure on the Sandinista government?”

“The NSC called the U.S. Information Agency complaining they had absolutely no input in my question . . . that I should have cleared it with the NSC,” Lopez-Munoz said.

She said she was told, “You are in real trouble because you acted as a journalist.”