By Jesus Diaz Jr.
jdiaz@MiamiHerald.com

In order to have democracy, a country must enjoy freedom of the press. The past week has been painful for many in the Cuban community and for employees at The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. Many have questioned the motives behind the dismissal of two El Nuevo Herald reporters and a freelance writer who did a significant amount of work for us while simultaneously working for and being paid by Radio and TV Martí.

I approved the dismissals because, as the publisher of these newspapers, I am deeply committed to the separation between government and a free press. Further, our employees violated our conflict-of-interest rules. All of our journalists acknowledge and agree to adhere to our policies, which include this statement:

We demonstrate our principles by operating with fairness, accuracy and independence, and by avoiding conflicts of interest, as well as the appearance of conflicts of interest. Our news operations will be diligent in their pursuit of the truth, without regard to special interests.

Our decisions, painful as they were, reaffirm our commitment that reporters and editors at our newspapers are free of even the hint of a conflict of interest.

It is by sustaining this transparency that we can assure that our reporters will continue to function as impartial and independent watchdogs in our community and tackle investigations leading to stories such as the House of Lies series, which disclosed corruption in the Miami-Dade Housing Authority, and Fire Watch, which uncovered abuses in Miami-Dade's fire-watch program.

As a child in Cuba, I lived under a totalitarian government where freedom of speech did not exist. I remember my parents telling my sister and me, over and over, ''Do not say anything bad about the government'' for fear of reprisal. I do not want my daughter to ever have to say that to her children or to her grandchildren.

I am committed to fair and independent journalism because I firmly believe that a totalitarian government cannot survive under the spotlight of a free press. Throughout this past week, I have been reminded that a dictator such as Fidel Castro would not be in power if Cuba had a free press.

A SHORT JOURNEY

History has proved that the journey from an open society to a totalitarian regime can be a short one. When journalists receive regular payments for government-sponsored reporting while working for free-press outlets, we take a step down this dangerous path.

Let me be clear:

• The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald are committed to fair and independent reporting.

• The institutional position of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, as expressed on our editorial pages, has been to support the work and goals of Radio and TV Martí.

I also wish to clarify our position on a number of questions and rumors, which we have heard over the past week:

• The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and our parent company, McClatchy, have no plans to open a bureau inside Cuba.

• Cuba rejects or does not respond to our requests for visas for our reporters. As such, any reporting by Miami Herald staff members from Cuba comes from those who have made their way into the country as tourists, requiring us to run their stories without bylines in order to protect their identities.

• We do not know why the Cuban TV program Mesa Redonda commented on the essence of our story before it ran. We are confident this information did not come from anyone at The Miami Herald, and we believe that Mesa Redonda may have gained this information from a review of our public-records requests, since these requests are available to the public.

I am concerned about our readers' reaction to columnists Carl Hiaasen's and Ana Menendez's opinion columns in today's paper. My first reaction was to keep both columns, which represent Carl's and Ana's opinions, from running in the paper at this time because I believe they may inflame sentiments in the Cuban community.

LIMITING FREEDOM

However, many in our organization have told me that doing so would be the equivalent of suffocating the very freedom of the press I was trying to protect when we dismissed the El Nuevo Herald reporters. Therefore, the articles are published in today's paper.

I am saddened by the pain these events have caused in our community during the past week. We are not perfect, but rest assured that we will continue to work diligently for the betterment of our community.

Jesús Diaz Jr. is the publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald.