David Skaggs: “Recently there was a survey done in Cuba under the auspices of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the overall entity…”

“Recently there was a survey done in Cuba under the auspices of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the overall entity that supervises our international broadcasting activities. Based upon that survey, in which 4 people out of 284 surveyed said they may have seen TV Marti in the last few days, our own Broadcasting Board of Governors has determined and issued a report that this UHF signal is jammed just as easily as the old VHF was and there is no significant audience. There is going to be, I suspect, some use of this survey, and I just think it is important for Members to understand how this survey was done. The persons surveyed included only those who had come to the U.S. interest section in the Swiss Embassy in Havana to apply for visas to come to the United States, so that was not exactly a random sample. These are people that are trying to get out, understandably so. Also of interest is the fact that in the waiting room for the U.S. interest section there is a television set there which broadcasts TV Marti because they have a satellite dish. So the idea that even these 4 people out of 284 give us any basis for hope that the signal is getting through I think is pretty well undermined by the way this survey was done.”