ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
In a move it said would focus more attention on the shortcomings of Communist Cuba, the Clinton administration gave the go-ahead Wednesday for 10 U.S. news organizations to open bureaus in Cuba.
The Cuban Foreign Ministry said the other media applications would be reviewed.
The administration acted after influential conservatives, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said they would have no objection to the presence of U.S. news bureaus in Havana.
No U.S. news outlet has had a permanent bureau in Cuba since The Associated Press was expelled in 1969.
White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the administration's action was in keeping with a policy dating back to October 1995 ``supporting an increased flow of accurate information to and from and within Cuba itself.''
He said the administration believes that reporting by U.S. news organizations ``will keep international attention focused on the situation in Cuba and on the realities of economic and political conditions there.''
``It also will bring greater public exposure to those who are advocating a democratic change in Cuba,'' he said.
A Cuban Foreign Ministry official in Havana, contacted by telephone, said CNN was the only U.S. news organization authorized by the Cubans.
``We will continue analyzing the rest of the applications'' and will make decisions ``when the Cuban government considers it opportune,'' the official said. Cuba approved CNN's application in August.
British and French news agencies have been the only Western news outlets allowed by the Cuban government to set up permanent bureaus.
But Cuba frequently has granted American reporters visas - usually lasting about a week - for travel to the Caribbean island. Cuban officials have said that 90 percent of visa applications from American reporters have been approved over the years.
Besides CNN and the AP, U.S. government permission to open bureaus was extended to ABC, CBS, Univision, The Miami Herald, Dow Jones News Services, the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, which publishes a Cuba news letter.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB