Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-DATE-
19850920
-YEAR-
1985
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
MESSAGE
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO WARNING ON RADIO TRANSMITTERS
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA TELEVISION SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19850920
-TEXT-
CASTRO WARNING ON RADIO TRANSMITTERS

FL201414 Havana Television Service in Spanish 1101 GMT 20 Sep 85

[Text] With closing remarks by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, the Latin
American Press Forum on the Regional Financial Crisis, which met for 3 days
with the presence of journalists, economists, sociologists, and essayists
from 23 countries, has concluded in Havana's Palace of Conventions.

At the closing session, held as a prolongation of the final session, which
began at 1500, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro made the following remarks:

[Begin recording] Permit me to perform what I consider a basic duty: To
express, although Margolles has already done so, my deepest gratitude for
the privilege it has been for me and all our Cuban comrades to have the
chance to participate in a meeting of such high quality as this one has
been, and to thank you for the great amount all of us have learned, and for
the stimulus and the hope that comes from having been able to observe how
many ideas, what depth, and what scientific, journalistic, political, and
human qualities exist within our peoples and within our hemisphere.

What we can promise you is that we will intensify our struggle for these
objectives.  I want to express my conviction and, I am sure, that of all
our comrades that we will power forget this meeting which, if there is a
follow-up, if the ideas continue to develop as I believe they are going to,
if initiatives such as supporting the action of the 23d [not further
explained], the idea of publishing a magazine, as Dos Santos said, and many
other ideas that will arise are followed up, then this meeting will be
historical.

Count on us, count on PRENSA LATINA. Really, PRENSA LATINA has become
underdeveloped, not its spirit but its physical plant, its material basis.
It is located in the same office as when it was founded, when Masetti, with
great encouragement and support by Che, worked to found the agency during
the early years of the revolution.  We are trying to provide it with
installations and equipment because I believe that in this struggle -- the
means of communication, a press agency that will break the terrible
monopoly that exists and I wish it were not only one press agency!  I hope
more press agencies develop that can serve.as a means of communication and
counteract.... We do not have only PRENSA LATINA, which is at your service.
We also have radio.  We have powerful radio stations,which we have used to
transmit the programs of the meetings.  They existed before.  They are
weapons we have here because they are threatening us with subversive radio.
We have very powerful stations! Both medium wave and shortwave. Let me tell
you that by putting some equipment together we can get together 1,000
kilowatts, not 50 or 100.  If we turn on these stations, radio will not be
heard again in the United States. But I hope we will not have to use them
for this purpose, as a response, if they do not take advice, if they
persist in their plans for a campaign of subversion. But they can be useful
on shortwave, not medium wave. On medium wave they could interfere. Some of
these stations, if they are put in use, would reach Alaska with medium
wave.

These stations also have enough power to reach the whole world on shortwave
without interfering with anyone's radio. If the journalists want to spread
their ideas, or economists, or scientists, they can use it to do so. We
feel morally obliged to make an effort to increase PRENSA LATINA s
resources and dissemination. Immediately following some of these meetings
and to avoid distortion, and also because some newspapers, even some
rightist newspapers, expressed interest in some of these meetings, PRENSA
LATINA sent them the material directly although they were not subscribers,
and a lot of them had expressed interest. When we have been interested in
distributing certain material and our interest has coincided with the
interest of the press in receiving the information, we have sent it
directly without charge. An agency like this has to be at the service of
the cause and cannot wait until a subscription has been paid for to send
out information. I mean that many of these articles and studies can be sent
directly to everyone who is interested without being a subscriber.

Someone spoke here of alternative media, saying that in Chile more than 100
cassettes were recorded of the closing ceremony of the Latin American
meeting. This is really an alternative medium. Television stations
sometimes copy what they are interested in, and I think there is great
possibility here to break the monopoly without great expenditures or
resources. All those possibilities can also be used for radio in addition
to television. Graphic services could also be provided, not only news but
also documentaries. I think a lot can be done through the agency without
allocating great resources, by counting on the cooperation of a lot of
people.

As I have said several times these past few days, problems are not always
solved with money. There are many problems that cannot be solved with
money; they require the effort, the goodwill of man, and the cooperation of
man. We will place all these resources at your disposal. And I repeat that
if we provide a follow-up to this work, I believe we will he able
legitimately to say that this meeting, this dialogue, this forum will be
historical. Thank you. [applause] [end recording]
-END-


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