A/65/154
– A ruling of the ITU Radio Regulations Board, which at its 35th meeting in
December 2004 established that United States emissions on 213 MHz resulted
in harmful interference with Cuban services and requested the United States
Government to take the relevant measures to halt them. Furthermore, since
September 2006 the Radio Regulations Board has been requesting the United
States Government to take measures to eliminate interference on 509 MHz,
with no response to date. In the Summary of Decisions of the fiftieth meeting
of the Board, which ended on 20 March 2009 (document RRB09-1/5), it was
once again stated that the transmissions are illegal and the United States
Government was requested to take all necessary steps with a view to
eliminating these two cases of interference with television services in Cuba.
On 26 March 2010, at its fifty-third meeting, the ITU Radio Regulations Board
reiterated its conclusion that the broadcasts from the United States cause
interference harmful to the Cuban stations included in the International
Frequency Register and urged the United States administration to eliminate
this harmful interference, requesting the Radiocommunication Bureau to
monitor the situation and to act in accordance with the procedures established
in the Radio Regulations.
– ITU Radio Regulation 23.3, limiting television broadcasting outside national
frontiers.
10. A report issued in January 2009 by the General Accounting Office (GAO) of
the United States of America, an official government agency, recognizes the violations
of international norms and domestic legislation committed by the programme of
radio and television broadcasts by the United States Government against Cuba.
– The report recalled that the International Telecommunication Union had
determined in 2004 and 2006 that United States broadcasting on channels 13
and 20 was causing harmful interference to Cuban stations and that the State
Department had taken no action in response to the ITU determination. The
report also stated that the World Radiocommunication Conference, held in
November 2007, had found that transmission from an aircraft was not in
conformity with ITU regulations.
– The report had stated that, although United States legislation prohibited the
domestic dissemination of broadcasts of that type, both the radio and television
broadcasts were received in the territory of the United States, principally in
Miami, and that the stations under contract aired paid political advertisements
and commercials for sex services. In addition, it noted that the broadcasts
against Cuba did not adhere to journalistic standards of balance and objectivity
and used incendiary and offensive language.
11. Cuba recalls, moreover, that the World Radiocommunication Conference
(WRC-07), which met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 22 October to 16 November
2007, adopted conclusions that found transmissions from aircraft from the United
States to Cuba to be in violation of the Radio Regulations. The conclusions endorsed
by the plenary stated that “a broadcasting station operating on board an aircraft
and transmitting solely to the territory of another administration without its
agreement cannot be considered in conformity with the Radio Regulations”.
12. These conclusions were agreed in the plenary of the 2007 Conference and have
legal standing in the work of ITU. The World Radiocommunication Conference thus
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