14867: (Chamberlain) Haitian radio station suspends news broadcasts (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Michael Deibert

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - One of Haiti's most popular radio
stations stopped broadcasting news on Tuesday to protest an attack last
week against one of its correspondents.
     The home of Goudou Jean Numa, one of Radio Metropole's leading
political reporters, was surrounded by armed men on Friday and later that
night a car in his garage was set ablaze. He has since gone into hiding.
     Privately owned Metropole aired a statement early on Tuesday saying it
would halt news reports for 24 hours in protest.
     "Here at Radio Metropole, we have always avoided protesting publicly
against the intimidation, threats and physical and verbal attacks leveled
against the members of the newsroom," the statement said. "However, the
attack against our colleague Goudou Jean Numa was too much."
     Radio Metropole, along with other private radio stations such as Radio
Kiskeya and Radio Haiti Inter, have frequently been the target of threats
and harassment from political militants claiming loyalty to Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
     Aristide, a former Catholic priest who began his second term as
Haiti's president in February 2001, has been under fire in recent months
from opposition groups that accuse his government of repressing journalists
and human rights groups.
     The Metropole statement said four of its journalists had gone into
exile in the United States in the last 14 months and its correspondent in
the northern city of Gonaives had been forced to flee the city as a result
of threats and attacks by escaped convict and Aristide supporter Amiot
Metayer.
     "Since the killing of prominent radio journalist and long-time
democracy and human rights activist Jean Dominique in April 2000, freedom
of expression has been severely undermined and a number of journalists and
human rights defenders have been attacked or killed," Amnesty International
said in statement released late on Monday.
     Dominque, Haiti's best known journalist, was gunned down along with
the caretaker for his radio station, Radio Haiti Inter, on April 3, 2000.
     Since then, three judges investigating the case have quit claiming
threats, pressure and obstruction from elements within and close to the
Aristide government.
     In December 2002, an apparent attempt on the life of Dominique's
widow, Michele Montas, resulted in the death of her bodyguard when armed
men raked her home with gunfire.