13983: Sanba: Haiti Facts Check

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: sanba@juno.com

"HAITI FACTS CHECK"                                     HaitiFactsCheck@aol.com
Contact: Joseph P. Paul


Mr. Angus Mc Swan, Bureau Chief
Reuters News
Miami

While we believe that Reuters News  had always shown some fairness in its
coverage of Haiti, we are nevertheless alarmed at its recent trend of reporting the current events in the country.

It is inconceivable to us that your correspondents in Haiti have been writing, with a few exceptions such as Cap Haitien last week, about ongoing anti and pro government demonstrations taking place throughout the country's provinces while based in Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Worse, Reuters has been quoting almost daily Radio Metropole, an avowed anti-Aristide radio outlet1, and  Radio Vision 2000, another station reputed for its anti-Aristide slant.

Although we do not necessarily doubt the veracity of most of the reports broadcast by Radio Metropole and Radio Vision 2000, we, however, contend that they always leave out "the rest of the story" creating the image of  an out-of-control Haitian president heading a grossly incapable and violent government.

Case in point:  In a story with dateline November 27, 2002 the Reuters  correspondent wrote: "On Tuesday, unidentified gunmen in Gonaives fired on a marked car belonging to the Organization of American States, local media said. No one was reported injured."

Missing: According to spokesperson from the Organization of the American States (OAS) in Washington, the perpetrators were likely to be from the anti-Aristide crowd that greeted them at the entrance of  Décao near the provincial town of Gonaives.  Witnesses told Radio Haiti Inter (Haiti) that the gunmen were one Assad and  another Jean Pierre, two well known Democratic Convergence* supporters in Gonaives.
*The Democratic Convergence, a  coalition cobbled by  a multitude of small Haitian opposition groups, is opposed to the  OAS' sponsored  elections scheduled for next spring.

We urge Reuters to get the "complete story".   For impending stories in the provinces get your correspondents out of the capital. Or when sudden or "out-of-reach" events occur, please quote also other Haitian radio stations such as independent Radio Haiti Inter2 and Radio Ginen, among the 52 other stations in functioning in the country.

As a rule of thumb, before the U.S. military intervenes abroad -either personally or by proxies- the U.S. press always demonizes "the enemy".  We sincerely hope that this is not the case here.



"Haiti Facts Check" is the media and think tanks watchdog on Haiti dedicated to providing factual information and fair criticism to remedy biases against Haiti and Haitians.
We are a group of Haitians and non-Haitians who have pledged to contribute to the effacement of the harmfully negative image of Haiti and Haitians projected through the prism of racist Hollywood movies."
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1- Source: ABC's 1994 documentary "A House on Fire" . Interview by Peter Jennings of Richard Widmaer, Radio Metropole's co-owner and station manager..
2- Source: Amnesty International