a992: Re: a972: Re: a962: Re: a946: HAITIAN JOURNALISTS: Arthur comments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

from Charles Arthur.

Yes, lots of the reporting about Haiti is unintentionally, or intentionally,
slack. The failure to put Leopald Berlanger in any context being a case in
point.

No mention of his role (and funding from the NED/USAID) in IHRED, circa
1990/91, and his collaboration with Marc Bazin, then the US darling and
later, the coup regime's PM.

No mention either of his role as director of Radio Vision 2000, a radio
station set up after Aristide's return in 1994 that was criticised by Radio
Haiti Inter and Libete, amongst others, for, amongst other things, poaching
the better journalists from progressive media and putting them to work under
a strictly conservative editorial line.

Still on the issue of slack and other sorts of reporting, Kevin Pina posted
suggesting that the remarks made by Paul Raymond in January 2001 were blown
out of all proportion by the international media in order to discredit the
Lavalas Family. While there may be some truth in this, I believe it is worth
pointing out that there was also quite a lot of disquiet about the remarks on
the part of progressive organisations in Haiti.

SICRAD, which I believe to one of the best sources of independent news about
Haiti, reported at the time that Raymond's remarks were condemned by "parties
of all tendencies" including the Party Louvri Baryè (PLB), and, that
according to its spokesman, Yvon Neptune, and other top leaders, Fanmi
Lavalas also "condemned the threats from wherever they come". SICRAD's report
listed a string of other organisations that had reacted with "concern",
including the Haitian Conference of the Religious (CHR), the Coordination of
TKL of Port-au-Prince, the National Confederation of Haitian Teachers (CNEH),
the women's organisations Kay Fanm, and Solidarity among Haitian Women
(SOFA), and the institution, Enfo-Fanm.

Earlier, Kevin posted to correctly point out that "Human Rights Watch also
was among those organizations who never once mentioned that Paul Raymond was
immediately placed under judicial restraint by the government restricting his
travel and forcing him to meet with the equivalent of a probation officer for
a period of six weeks. Having made such a big deal of the former while not
giving a single reference to the latter left everyone with the impression
that the Government of Haiti tacitly approved threats against the press while
the facts speak otherwise."

It is certainly interesting to say the least that there was not one media
report about Raymond being placed under judicial restraint. But it is
disappointing to realise that the 'probation' seemed to have little deterrent
effect for just a few weeks later, on 21 February 2001, Rene Civil and co.
were issuing threats of violence against FL Senators Sonson Pierre, Gilles
and Clonès for rocking the boat concerning Senator Toussaint's refusal to
cooperate with the Jean Dominique murder inquiry, and in June the same year,
the St Jean Bosco and JPP crews were at it again, issuing threats against
Judge Claudy Gassant who was rumoured to have cited Senator Toussaint in his
report on the Dominique case.


While it is sometimes informative to read the BBC Monitoring Unit's
transcripts of some Haitian radio station reports, it seems to me that what
is needed is not more news (which we are getting although it's the same news
again and again) but better news, better research and a better appreciation
of context.