20025: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Journalist Killed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PAISLEY DODDS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 7 (AP) -- Ricardo Ortega, a correspondent for
Spanish television, was killed Sunday while covering an outbreak of
shooting during a protest by opponents of ousted president Haitian
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   Ortega, 37, was wounded as he took shelter in a nearby home with South
Florida Sun-Sentinel photographer Michael Laughlin, 37, who had been shot
in the shoulder and face.
   Residents in the home began treating them both, even as Ortega, a New
York correspondent for the Spanish television station Antena 3, continued
to film his colleague's wounds.
   "He was bleeding and he just kept taking pictures and working," Laughlin
told The Associated Press.
   Both were taken to a hospital where Laughlin survived, but Ortega died
after being shot in the midsection.
   Ortega began his career in Moscow, where he worked for the Spanish news
agency Efe. He started freelancing for Antena 3, then began working for the
network full time in 1994.
   He transferred to New York three years ago, and covered the Sept. 11
terror attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for Antena 3. He also
reported on the conflict in Chechnya.
   Although he had recently taken a leave of absence, the network confirmed
Sunday that he had volunteered to go to Haiti for the network and was
covering the demonstration when he was shot.
   The network interrupted its Sunday program to report Ortega's death.
   Witnesses blamed Aristide supporters for the shooting, but peacekeepers
could not confirm who was responsible. No arrests had been made.
   Aristide supporters have harassed and attacked journalists throughout
the rebellion. Last month, as the push to oust Aristide heated up, a
Haitian radio reporter was shot and wounded in the northern city of
Cap-Haitien by government loyalists who accused him of working for the
rebels.
   The shooting followed attacks on four journalists -- three Mexicans and
a Haitian -- during a march in Port-au-Prince a few days earlier. The three
Mexican journalists were attacked with rocks and machetes, while the
Haitian was shot twice in the back and was recovering in a hospital.