Documentary Raps Bush’s TV-Marti Strategy

As the Bush Administration attempts to beam its version of world events into Cuba through a satellite transmission called TV-Marti, a group of high-tech progressives in the United States is beaming its view of the propaganda war to American homes.

And while TV-Marti’s signal is being jammed by an angry Fidel Castro, who says its broadcasts violate Cuba’s right to regulate its own television transmissions, a documentary called “Export TV: The Anatomy of an Electronic Invasion,” is planned for a satellite broadcast of its own today.

The half-hour program will be beamed over the satellite SatCom 4, transponder 22, at 11 a.m. Viewers with satellite dishes will be able to see it then. Century Cable and Continental Cable have said that they will tape it when it comes off of the satellite, but have not yet scheduled a time to run it.

The point of the program, according to producer Monica Melamid, is to present an alternative view to the Bush Administration’s about TV-Marti, which the U.S. government named after Cuban hero Jose Marti. “It is completely questionable, both technically dubious and apparently illegal, and a very, very silly use of resources by almost everybody’s standards,” Melamid said.

The documentary is being distributed by the New York-based Deep Dish network, an alternative broadcasting service that by-passes traditional TV outlets, airing its programs over satellite and on community access channels of cable-TV systems.

Asked whether there was a difference between Deep Dish’s independent distribution and TV-Marti’s attempts to bypass traditional methods to get into Cuba, Melamid said that her program was being sent over legally obtained frequencies, while TV-Marti, which broadcasts into Cuba on VHS-Channel 13, is being sent in against the wishes of that country’s government.

“The airwaves for television are regulated by international convention, and VHS channels 2 through 13 are for domestic use only,” Melamid said. “The United States government is going in there on a channel that’s for Cuban domestic use, and Cuba considers that an invasion.”