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More firings at US-funded broadcaster over reports that referred to George Soros as anti-Semitic
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

More firings at US-funded broadcaster over reports that referred to George Soros as anti-Semitic

'This was purely a matter of a rogue journalist who was being supervised poorly'

A total of eight staffers have been fired at Radio and TV Martí following a monthslong internal investigation into a series of reports that referred to George Soros as anti-Semitic.

Soros, who is a naturalized American citizen, was described as a "nonpracticing Jew of flexible morals" and as a "left-wing billionaire of Hungarian-Jewish origin," in the three-part series broadcast in Cuba, according to the Miami Herald. The reports raised conspiracy theories about the billionaire philanthropist. Radio and TV Martí is owned by the U.S. Agency for Global Media and funded by the federal government.

"A comprehensive human resources investigation of the incident is now complete. One employee and three contractors have been terminated to date, and the agency has initiated the standard disciplinary process for four additional OCB employees," John Lansing, chief executive of USAGM, said in a statement.

The reports by reporter Isabel Cuervo for the Antena Live program originally aired in May but made headlines after turning up on a Cuban blog in October, just days after Soros received a bomb threat.

Lansing described Cuervo's series as, "a blatantly anti-Semitic video segment about George Soros that was deeply offensive and wholly inconsistent with our professional standards and ethics. OCB should have never aired it."

Who was fired?

On Wednesday, Cuervo, her editor Vivian Martínez, producer Janet Lomba and journalist Armando de Armas learned that they would be fired, according to a Martí employee who spoke to the Miami Herald on the condition of anonymity.

"This was purely a matter of a rogue journalist who was being supervised poorly that allowed that terrible piece of content to be published," Lansing said. "There was no connection to anyone in the Trump administration, period."

One federal employee and three contractors were fired after the reports were first brought into question last fall.

What else?

Lansing has reportedly appointed an independent panel to audit the entire contents of Martí stations and media sites that are backed by federal money.

The stations' mission is to transmit honest and unbiased information to Cuba as a way to break through government censorship.

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