23735: (pub) Esser: Media on Haiti - Counterbalance to Reality (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. E$sser <torx@joimail.com>

The Dominion
http://dominionpaper.ca/

November 06, 2004

Canadian Media on Haiti
Counterbalance to Reality
by Dru Oja Jay


Editors place a great deal of importance on maintaining the
appearance of objectivity and impartiality. Sometimes this leads to
"forced balance", a term first used by media watchdog Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). FAIR was referring to coverage of the
US elections, where it found that journalists were assuming "that
both sides must be found equally guilty," and attempted to dig up the
same amount of dirt on both candidates, even when doing so
misrepresented the events being covered.

There are no Canadian journalists filing regularly from Haiti. As a
result, media coverage of the situation has come almost entirely from
the US-based Associated Press (AP). The CBC, Toronto Star, Globe and
Mail, and National Post have all relied heavily, in some cases
exclusively, on AP stories.

In the case of the situation in Haiti, the AP has taken the practice
of forced balance to extreme lengths, using facts that are nominally
accurate to construct a depiction that is directly at odds with
reality.

There are two basic narratives that have appeared in Canadian
newspapers: Aristide supporters attacking police, and thousands
starving in the aftermath of hurricane-related natural disasters.

For example, the Globe and Mail's online edition offered the
following headlines over the month of October: "Haiti struggles to
stem unrest"; "S. Africa denies allowing Aristide to plan uprising";
"UN peacekeepers wounded in Haiti"; "UN soldier wounded in gun battle
in Haiti"; "UN, police move into Haiti slum to curb gangs"; "Wave of
unrest sweeps Haiti after devastation of floods"; "Haitian gangs
causing havoc"; "Massive effort strives to stave off famine in
Haiti"; and "Peacekeepers, police storm Haiti's Bel Air".

The cycle of violence that has been the focus of these reports began
on September 30th, when a massive protest demanding Aristide's return
had been planned. According to reports from independent observers and
the Haiti Information Project (a group of independent journalists in
Haiti), the march began at approximately10 a.m., with an estimated
10,000 participating, and many thousands more expected later in the
day. Although the organizers had received permits approved by the
government, the Haitian National Police (PNH) began shooting into the
crowd at 10:30 a.m.

Initial AP reports ignored this incident almost completely, focussing
instead on three police officers that were killed in a counterattack
by armed Haitians, presumably Aristide supporters. AP reports gave
prominent placement to assertions by government officials that three
policemen had been decapitated in an action that was reportedly named
"Operation Baghdad" by the resistance. However, human rights
officials were never allowed access to the bodies to determine what
had happened. The AP only acknowledged the PNH's attack on the crowd
in later reports, which described the attack as mere "allegations" by
protesters, despite interim President Gerard Latortue's admission
that at least two people were killed.

According to independent journalist Kevin Pina, many other atrocities
are being ignored by the international press. Pina points to the 600
corpses that appeared in a Port-au-Prince morgue in the month of
October. Widespread reports of repression, arrests, and murder of
Aristide supporters have scarcely been covered by the AP, which only
reports that "at least 50" people have been killed.

“When I read the international press, I’m not sure that I’m living in
the country they are describing,” Pina told a reporter. -
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/5902/1/235/

Amnesty International recently reported that "the interim government
has swiftly moved to arrest members of former President Aristide's
Fanmi Lavalas Party," which it accuses of corruption, "but has not
acted with the same commitment against accused or convicted
perpetrators of grave human rights violations". Most recently,
Amnesty has condemned the arrest of Jean Juste, a Haitian priest and
popular advocate of poor people.

Some have described Amnesty's criticism as soft, given that the
government acknowledges that Haitian prisons were emptied of common
criminals, murders and thieves, and have since been filled with
thousands of dissidents.

On October 27, 30 members of the United States Congress called for
the release of political prisoners in Haiti. Signatories included
former candidate for leadership of the Democratic party Dennis
Kucinich, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee and James McGovern. Earlier this
summer, 32 members of the US Congressional Black Caucus refused to
meet with Latortue, referring to him as a "puppet".

AP stories have not mentioned any of these, or any of the many other
human rights reports and experts that make similar claims.

Despite extensive coverage, the AP (and thus, Canadian media), media
reports have almost universally neglected strong criticisms of the
US-appointed government's handling of the humanitarian situation in
Haiti. In a news release, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a
Washington DC-based research institute, explained that -
http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2004/
04.72%20Haiti%20and%20Powell%20the%20one.htm

          Latortue and his confederates were not even competent enough
to take the basic step of establishing an emergency national radio
grid over which they could have broadcast calls to the population to
go to high ground in order to escape from the flooding. This
abdication of responsibility alone should have been enough to justify
calling for his and his colleagues' resignations.

In a September 23 interview with Flashpoints, -
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=55&ItemID=6284%20
Kevin Pina explained that the Civil Protection Bureau, a network of
community-based disaster relief organizations organized under the
Aristide administration, had been dismantled since Aristide's ouster
on February 29. "People who were associated with [the Civil
Protection Bureau] were also driven from their offices, [their]
offices were burned, and they were driven into hiding," said Pina.

No mention of these criticisms, or the facts behind them, was made in
any of the Canadian coverage of the situation in Haiti. With these
criticisms in mind, one might imagine that a lively debate might
ensue about the manner in which Paul Martin's liberal government
handled the situation in Haiti. The government chose to ignore
President Aristide's pleas for help with security for a full month,
sending in troops only after Aristide had been removed from office by
US Marines.

As it stands, such a debate is not possible, as the most basic and
essential facts about Haiti's ongoing crisis are not available in the
media sources that most Canadians rely on.
.