12276: This Week in Haiti 20:14 6/19/2002 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

"This Week in Haiti" is the English section of HAITI PROGRES
newsweekly. To obtain the full paper with other news in French
and Creole, please contact us (tel) 718-434-8100,
(fax) 718-434-5551 or e-mail at <editor@haitiprogres.com>
Also check our website at <www.haitiprogres.com>.

                           HAITI PROGRES
              "Le journal qui offre une alternative"

                      * THIS WEEK IN HAITI *

                        June 19 - 25, 2002
                          Vol. 20, No. 14

WBAI RETURNS TO HAITIAN PROGRAMMING

For the first time in a decade, WBAI 99.5 FM, the New York
affiliate of the Pacifica network, will begin airing radio shows
dedicated to Haiti and its diaspora.

At the end of June, three pilot programs spanning four hours will
examine issues ranging from union-busting and free trade zones in
Haiti to police brutality in New York, with healthy doses of
Haitian music, such as konpa, rasin, and mizik angaje.

Bernard White, WBAI's programming director, gave the pilot
programs to a collective of Haitian grass-roots groups and media
activists, with an eye to establishing a regular weekly program
on Haiti.

"Haiti hasn't been in the news lately, and most people have lost
track of what is happening there," explained Christian Lemoine of
Rezo Solidarite, one of the groups in the radio collective. "We
hope to update people and bring a new perspective on developments
in Haiti, and to draw parallels with what is happening in other
countries, so that progressives and the activist community can
draw lessons from that history."

WBAI already hosts several regional programs such as "Our
Americas," "Afrikaleidoscope," "Asia Pacific Forum," and the
"Middle East Report." Presently, there are only two programs
dedicated to news and analysis of specific countries: "Cuba in
Focus" and "Radio Free Eireann," which examines Ireland.

But "thousands of Haitians in the New York metropolitan area
listen to WBAI because they are politically sophisticated and
don't care for the cookie-cutter news and disinformation
dispersed by the mainstream corporate media outlets," explained
Ray Laforest of the Haiti Support Network, another collective
member. "Haitian listeners also played a role in fighting the
coup that took over WBAI most of last year, just as we fought the
coup in our own country."

In Dec. 2000 and following months, much of the progressive staff
of WBAI was fired after the Pacifica National Board moved to
depoliticize the five-station network's programming and explored
selling off stations (see Haïti Progrès, Vol. 18, No. 43,
1/10/2001). Listeners revolted, forcing the resignation of many
Board members, and the establishment of a new Interim board in
Dec. 2001 entrusted with drafting new by-laws and returning the
network to its original mission of "radio with a vision of peace,
justice, and equity for all," according to WBAI's website.

The pilot Haitian programs are, in some way, the fruit of WBAI's
restoration. They will air from 10 - 11 a.m. on Mon., Jun. 24 and
Tue., Jun. 25, and from 3 - 5 p.m. on Sat., Jun. 29.

Other organizations involved in the Haitian radio collective
include the Charlot Jacquelin Committee, MOKAM, the cultural
group Gran Chemin, and Haïti Progrès.

The collective is bursting with creative ideas about future
programming that would complement the mainstays of news,
analysis, debate, and announcements. While there are several
Haitian radio programs and stations broadcasting in Creole, this
will be the only one in English, which the collective sees as an
asset. "As an English speaking station, WBAI can be our link to
talk to other communities," Laforest said.