a946: HAITIAN JOURNALISTS CONFRONT DIRE SITUATION (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 25 (IPS) -- Nervously speaking in a hotel room on the
outskirts of this capital, top Haitian journalists Guy Delva and Leopold
Berlanger do their best to explain just how dangerous life has become for
the free press here over the past two years.
   Since mid-2000, people apparently linked to the government of President
Jean Bertrand Aristide, the former grassroots Catholic priest turned
two-term president, have executed two prominent media practitioners.
   Since December, at least 15 others have been forced to flee the
27,000-square-kilometer country and to seek asylum in France, Canada, and
the United States -- refuge to large numbers of the Haitian diaspora.
   Delva and Berlanger believe that a recent string of attacks on
journalists, radio stations and other media outlets that are seen either as
independent or as anti-government, stems from the growing power and
influence of a media community that is now shaking off decades of self and
official censorship.
   Unaccustomed to journalists challenging official versions of events and
to the proliferation of radio and television call-in programs, supporters
of Aristide have turned their wrath on the media, publicly threatening
them, beating and accosting them on the streets, and trying to run their
vehicles off roads.
   Police officers said to be assigned to the National Palace also have
pointed cocked rifles at journalists.
   "Only people who are practicing here would understand what we are going
through," says Delva, sweating slightly, pulling at his tie, and recounting
a recent incident in which a store clerk bearing Delva's last name was
savagely beaten by pro-government activists in downtown Port-au-Prince.
   One pro-government radio station even announced Delva's death, prompting
a flurry of frantic calls from worried relatives and friends in the United
States.
   "They mistook the fellow for me because he had the same last name," he
says. "You must remember that we have lost two of our brothers to political
assassinations already. It is very serious and it is for real."
   The more relaxed Berlanger adds, "Our lives are in real danger. What we
are telling you is true."
   The media union has written the Trinidad and Tobago-based Association of
Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) asking it to intervene and to get the message
out that authorities have them in their sights -- for intimidation,
harassment and assassination, all with a view to eventually silence them.
   But Jonas Petit, a spokesman for the governing Fanmi Lavalas Party,
disputes this, saying that there is no systematic targeting of journalists.
"That is not true at all," he says. "There have been some incidents and we
are investigating them."
   In one case early last month, a vehicle carrying staffers from Radio
Signal FM was almost pushed off the road by one registered to the National
Palace. Its occupants reportedly hurled expletives at the media team and
pointed rifles.
   Delva and Berlanger agree that, by and large, the media here have
managed to operate freely but note that the atmosphere of insecurity is
stifling.
   Of the estimated 250 radio stations, only one is state-owned but dozens
more are linked to officialdom.
   Like no other professional journalists' body in the region, the Haitian
association is forced to take private criminal action against people
involved in beatings and harassment of its members. This is because police
often ignore their complaints or allow suspects to move around society with
impunity, they say.
   "We have seven cases before the courts," says Delva. "We have given
authorities information about the killings and other acts. Nothing has been
done. If the government is not behind this, then why the silence? The
silence is interpreted by popular organizations as a green light to attack
journalists for doing their work."
   St Lucia Foreign Minister Julian Hunte, on a Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) mission here earlier this month, told journalists: "There is a
very negative atmosphere for journalists in Haiti. I plan to tell the
CARICOM leaders about it. It is clear to me that the pillars of Haitian
society are weak, the judiciary, the police and the system of governance.
The problems you have are that of a young democracy."
   Nevertheless, Caribbean leaders paid hardly any attention to the plight
of the press at a subsequent summit in Belize. Instead, they called on the
international community to release more than $600 million in suspended aid
because of the deteriorating political, social, and economic situation in
the region's most populous state.
   Regional foreign ministers repeated the call in talks with Secretary of
State Colin Powell but he flatly refused, saying that Aristide has not done
enough to guarantee an atmosphere of security and to deal with electoral
and other reforms dating back to May 2000 elections.
   The killing of radio station executive Jean Leopold Dominique occurred
in 2000 and that of radio journalist Brignol Lindor last December. No one
has been charged in the murders.
   Delva and Berlanger say the atmosphere has worsened in the past two
months.
   The Ecumenical Center for Human Rights supports their assertion in a
special report on the deteriorating situation since Dec. 17. That was the
day on which the government said it repulsed an attempted coup in which ten
people including law enforcement officials died.
   The political opposition, civil society groups, and the media all heaped
scorn on that account, saying the events had been contrived to provide a
pretext for the government to crack down on them.
   In the aftermath, according to the Ecumenical Center's report, Lavalas
partisans turned their anger on the media, the opposition, civil society,
and human rights activists.
   Radio stations were burned and looted, as were the offices and homes of
opposition officials. Government supporters pulled aside journalists at
gunpoint. Workers from Radio Vision 2000 were forced to shout in public,
"Long live Aristide."
   Earlier this month, jailed journalist Jennet Morin was released from
detention after the association vouched he would appear in court. He was
not even told what charges he faced. He works for Radio Magik Stereo FM,
one apparently out of favor with the authorities.