The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees the OCB and other independent networks, including Voice of America, announced Wednesday that veteran media and communications executive Sylvia Rosabal will be the director of the Broadcasting Office of Cuba.
Rosabal is the latest network chief hired by Kelu Chao, a former VOA executive who took over as interim CEO when Trump-nominated Michael Pack resigned hours after President Joe Biden took office.
Chao was a whistleblower named in a court case brought against Pack and his assistants alleging editorial interference in the news network.
Rosabal, a former senior vice president of the Telemundo Network news division, has won numerous awards during her 30-year career on Spanish-language networks in the United States, including an Edward R. Murrow award for journalistic excellence.
She also worked in media logistics for the 2020 Democratic National Convention Committee.
The new director will fill the position as head of the Cuban Broadcasting Office that has been vacant since Jeffrey Scott Shapiro resigned in late January, shortly before Chao fired the other USAGM network chiefs who were installed by Pack in his final weeks as CEO.
Michael Pack’s leadership drew bipartisan criticism from members of Congress, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, and others who said his moves undermined the agency’s editorial independence.
In a statement Wednesday, Menendez, a Democratic senator from New Jersey, mentioned that he did not believe Rosabal “is the right person to lead the OCB.”
Menéndez indicated that the office should be headed by someone “with a record of unconditionally promoting freedom for all Cuban citizens.”
USAGM’s Cuban Broadcasting Office is based in Miami, Florida, where it oversees Radio and Television Martí, martinoticias.com and its social media platforms.
Menéndez, whose Cuban parents immigrated to the United States before he was born, reported that he respected Rosabal’s journalistic credentials but planned to pursue the new director’s plan on how to promote “the principles of freedom of the press and freedom of expression. in Cuba.”
“I am concerned that she will opt for an agreement with the Cuban regime instead of questioning its human rights violations and the denial of democratic freedoms to her people,” objected the senator.
USAGM has not responded to questions from the VOA about Menéndez’s criticism.
However, it is necessary to emphasize the mission of this body is to inform, involve and connect people from all over the world in support of freedom and democracy, respecting this the new leadership should not make agreements with regimes accused of violating the freedom of expression.