Miami public radio station nixes Cuban Five book interview

International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five

Canadian Professor Stephen Kimber who is currently on an East Coast tour with his new book, “What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five” has revealed that WLRN, an NPR station in Miami, has canceled a scheduled live interview for being “too incendiary.”

Professor Kimber’s book is the most comprehensive and researched publication to date about the arrest of 5 Cuban men in 1998 while they monitored the activity of anti Cuba groups operating in Southern Florida. Since that time there has been scarce coverage of the case despite it being at the center of current U.S. Cuba relations.

The book is the result of an exhaustive research effort, including the author’s review of more than 20,000 pages of court records of the longest case in U.S. history, that he presents in a clear and objective narrative. Stephen Kimber is a professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax and an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster.

Today on Professor Kimber’s website he posted the following; “Since I’m currently on a book tour in the northeastern US, the station arranged for me to go to affiliate WGBH in Boston (on Tuesday) to do the interview live from a studio there. All was set… Then, late last night, we got this email from WLRN:

‘I’m sorry to say that Topical Currents host/exec prod, Joseph Cooper, has told me to cancel the interview with Stephen Kimber. After looking over the book and accompanying material… he feels that the topic is too ‘incendiary’ and fears a negative reaction from certain segments of the community.’

Kimber went on to say “That email tells you everything you need to know – and more – about why it was impossible to find an unbiased jury in Miami to hear the case of the Cuban Five. And why it is even more important today – 15 years later, with four of the five still in American prisons – for Americans to learn the facts about this case.”