24990: RSF Americas: (news) Tuesday 3 May 2005 : 15th World Press Freedom day (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: RSF Americas <ameriques@rsf.org>
 Embargo 3 May 2004 at 00.01am (GMT)
The Americas

Haiti

Area: 27,750 sq.km.
Population: 8,326,000
Languages: Creole, French
Head of state: President Boniface Alexandre
Head of government: Prime Minister Gérard Latortue

Since the resignation of President Aristide,
press freedom has increased but is still fragile.
The job of maintaining the improvement,
disbanding armed groups and restoring the rule of
law is enormous and beyond the single issue of
press freedom. Everything is in the balance.

The departure into exile of President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide on 29 February 2004 ended
a long nightmare for the Haitian media that began
with the April 2000 murder of the country's
best-known radio journalist, Radio Haiti Inter
chief Jean Dominique. Since his death,
pro-Aristide thugs called "chimères" emerged and
another journalist, Brignol Lindor, was hacked to
death in December 2001. The president terrorised
the media by failing to punish the killers of the
two men.
Aristide's fall was sparked by a rebel advance
towards the capital and by French and US
pressure. Physical attacks and threats against
the media and its journalists peaked in the days
and weeks before his overthrow. In February
alone, 22 media outlets were attacked, looted or
censored and 19 journalists attacked, threatened
or shot and wounded. A week after Aristide fled,
Ricardo Ortega, of the Spanish TV station Antena
3, was killed in still unexplained circumstances.
Journalists have since regained some of their
confidence. "We can breathe again," Marvel
Dandin, chief editor of the leading
Port-au-Prince station Radio Kiskeya, told a
Reporters Without Borders fact-finding mission in
early June. The immediate arrival of a UN
peacekeeping force helped calm the situation by
curbing the appetite for revenge and by facing
off the rebels controlling more than half the
country. But the impact of the force was soon
limited by the problem of disarming the various
sides.

Self-censorship in the provinces

The respite for the media in Port-au-Prince may
be short-lived. Aristide supporters resumed
violent attacks in September, intimidating and
terrorising people, and more than 150 people
died, including many policemen, some of who were
decapitated. The wave of violence, dubbed
"Operation Baghdad," showed the continuing
influence of Aristide from his South African
exile.
The media in the provinces, largely controlled by
the rebels, opted for self-censorship.
Jean-Robert Lalane, owner of Radio Maxima, in the
northern city of Cap-Haitien, said the rule of
law no longer existed and that journalists had no
defence against threats or physical attacks. The
rebels were mostly former members of the army,
which was disbanded by Aristide in 1995 after the
collapse of the military dictatorship and which
has rarely shown any interest in democracy or in
tolerating the media.
When the ex-soldiers seized Cap-Haitien in late
February, they did nothing to stop the ransacking
of pro-Aristide media offices and sometimes took
part in it. They arbitrarily arrested journalists
in the Centre province who were unenthusiastic
about them. But staff at Radio Cap-Haitien said
the situation was an improvement on the climate
of terror under Aristide.

Disturbing events in the battle against impunity

The fight against impunity in the Dominique and
Lindor murder cases made little progress despite
the goodwill of new prime minister Gérard
Latortue.
Disturbing developments included the apparent
discovery in early December that three-quarters
of the contents of Dominique case file had
vanished from the supreme court offices. A senior
court official later denied this but by the end
of the year, it was not clear where they were.
Under Aristide, virtually all government bodies
obstructed progress in the murder investigation.
	Concern about impunity increased when two
former soldiers, Louis-Jodel Chamblain and
Jackson Joanis, were acquitted in August of
committing atrocities during the 1991-94 military
dictatorship. The trial was denounced as a sham
by human rights groups. Chamblain was a leader of
the rebellion against Aristide and it was thought
the government did not want to upset the
still-powerful rebels.
	No progress was made in the Lindor case,
which has been stuck in the supreme court since
spring 2003 despite the new government's promise
in June 2004 to see that the court ruled quickly
on whether to grant the Lindor family interested
party status in the case. Lindor, of Radio Echo
2000, was lynched in December 2001 in Petit-Goâve
(70 kms. southwest of Port-au-Prince). A
pro-Aristide "grassroots organisation" (in fact,
a militia) said it had killed him.
While Aristide's supporters and the ex-soldiers
who overthrew him remain armed they are a threat
to the media. General disarmament is the
government's declared priority. If it fails,
disorder and violence against the media may
return during the general elections due in 2005.


In 2004Š

- 1 journalist was killed
- 22 physically attacked
- 20 threatened
- 23 medias were physically attacked
- and 19 censored


Personal account

"It wasn't just a normal looting"

Armed men ransacked and looted the premises of
Télé-Haïti on 29 February 2004. General manager
Antoine Blanc recalls a sombre day for the
station and its staff.

Several dozen armed men, some wearing T-shirts
with the face of ex-President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide who'd fled the country a few hours
earlier, appeared in front of the station's
building in downtown Port-au-Prince. They were in
a bus which they used to break down the locked
gates.
Then they got into the building by smashing side
windows and for the next few hours carted off
everything they could and destroyed the rest -
ceilings, air-conditioning, electrical wiring,
computer cables - with machetes and iron bars.
After taking fire extinguishers and cutting off
the water supply, they started a fire in the
canteen, which fortunately didn't spread and was
later put out safely. It wasn't just a normal
looting. It was deliberate destruction.
24 vehicles were destroyed, some burned or else
stripped bare with the help of the car mechanics
that work in nearby streets. All the cable
network maintenance equipment that was in the
vehicles and offices was stolen.
We reckoned at least $730,000 worth of damage was
done. The key parts of the business were attacked
- the electrical system, the vehicles (vital to
maintain the cable network and keep contact with
customers), the computer system with all the
customer accounts and all the production and
reporting equipment.
Our 90 employees were devastated to find their
workplace in ruins and felt vulnerable, helpless
and depressed. Especially as the police did
nothing to prevent the attack even though they'd
been alerted several days before and again on the
morning of the attack by many radio stations.
Before Aristide fled, the transmitters of more
than half a dozen radio stations were sabotaged
on the hills above the capital on 14 January.
Persistent rumours said other media outlets,
including Télé-Haïti, were about to be attacked.
Early on 4 February, three men arrived at the
station in a car and asked to see the manager.
Two of them, armed and carrying walkie-talkies,
said they were police and that their visit was
"personal." They were told the manager wasn't
there. They said they would come back. They
didn't.
Télé-Haïti told the police inspector-general,
Evens Sainturné, who promised to "look for them,"
and communications minister Mario Dupuy, who told
us the government would take "appropriate steps."
Pro-Aristide "chimères" (hotheads) approached a
Télé-Haïti crew returning from the prime
minister's office on 25 February and said they
were going to march on the station. When the crew
got back there, they saw groups of people
standing round nearby. All the station staff were
evacuated just in case. Soon afterwards, burning
street barricades were erected in front of the
building.
Several radio stations called for people to help
Télé-Haïti but the pro-Aristide police did
nothing. Over this period, several security
firms, including the one guarding Télé-Haïti,
were attacked and their weapons stolen, ensuring
that the destroyers and looters could do their
work with confidence in the days that followed.

Port-au-Prince, May 2004


Accroche

"They carted off everything they could and
destroyed the rest with machetes and iron bars"
Tuesday 3 May 2005

15th World Press Freedom day

There has perhaps never been a more dangerous
time to be a journalist, says Reporters Without
Borders, which marks its 20th anniversary in
2005. Scanning the list of journalists killed,
imprisoned or physically assaulted in 2004, the
evidence is overwhelming. The organisation's
struggle is more essential than ever. Press
freedom is far from assured throughout the world.

More than one hundred journalists are currently
in prison. Fifty-three have died while doing
their job or for expressing their opinions in
2004. This is the highest toll since 1995.
Fifty-one journalists and media workers have been
killed since the start of the conflict in Iraq.
The abductions of Christian Chesnot, Georges
Malbrunot, Mohammed Al-Joundi and Giuliana
Sgrena, then of Florence Aubenas, Hussein Hanoun,
Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci and
Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian, who are all still being
held and who we hope will be quickly released, is
a reminder to the public of the high cost this
profession can exact.

Reporters Without Borders will mark the 15th
World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday 3 May against
this very particular background.

The worldwide press freedom organisation has once
again this year secured the backing of various
partners to help urge the public to join the
campaign for freedom of expression.

It is publishing a new book of photographs
Jeanloup Sieff for press freedom, the "2004
Global Press Freedom Tour" and a list of 34
"predators" of press freedom.
  On the programme for this 15th World Press Freedom Day

>  The 2004 Global Press Freedom Tour

>  The second edition of the new format Reporters Without Borders annual report
! Embargo: Tuesday 3 May 2005 at 00.01 am (GMT)
>  And in 2005? Update as at 29 April 2005

>  34 press freedom "predators" nailed

>  Reporters Without Borders condemns the actions
>of 7 new enemies of free expression
! Embargo 3 May 2004 at 00.01am (GMT)
>  It also publishes a black list of press freedom "criminals"

>  The new book of photographs
Jeanloup Sieff for press freedom on sale at 8
euros in aid of imprisoned journalists

>  Introduction to the book of photos
>  Thanks to Sanofi aventis!

>  Acknowledgements

Press pack, free visuals and articles available
for downloading on the website of Reporters
Without Borders:
http///www.rsf.org/espace_presse.php3

Daily updates of all press freedom violations worldwide on www.rsf.org

  15th World Press Freedom Day

! Embargo Tuesday 3 May 2005 at 00.01am (GMT)

With the support of French daily  Ouest-France

The 2004 Global Press Freedom Tour
Press freedom roundup for 2004

- 53 journalists killed
- 15 media assistants killed
- at least 907 arrested
- at least 1,146 physically attacked or threatened
- at least 622 media censored

A year of mourning
Fifty-three journalists were killed while doing
their jobs or for expressing their opinions in
2004. This is the highest toll since the dark
days of 1995 when radical Islamists in Algeria
killed more than 50 journalists in less than two
years.
Iraq remains the most dangerous country in the
world for journalists: Nineteen were killed in
2004 and more than 15 have been kidnapped. One
hostage-taking ended in tragedy with the murder
of Italian reporter Enzo Baldoni by members of
the Islamic Army in Iraq on the night of 26-27
August.
But Iraq is not the only perilous territory for
journalists. Sixteen reporters were killed in
Asia in 2004. Almost all of them were murdered
for taking a stand.  Exposing corruption among
elected officials or investigating organised
crime proved fatal for journalists in Bangladesh,
the Philippines and Sri Lanka. At the other end
of the world, on the American continent, violence
was also cranked up. Drug-traffickers and corrupt
political elites reacted violently to challenges
from the press. In Brazil, Colombia, Mexico,
Nicaragua and Peru, journalists paid for it with
their lives.

And then Africa, where the murder of Reporters
Without Borders' Gambian correspondent in
December came as a grisly reminder of the
continent's tendency for sudden and unpredictable
violence. It was the first murder of a Reporters
Without Borders' correspondent since the
organisation's creation in 1985.
The insurmountable wall of impunity that
obstructs human rights activists worldwide was
cracked open slightly in 2004 when murderers of
journalists were brought to justice with
convictions or arrests and charges in Costa Rica,
Cote d'Ivoire, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines
and elsewhere. This did not even come close to
resolving the problem.  But it is by stepping up
these convictions that it will be possible to
isolate even further those for whom justice means
only forgetfulness and giving allegiance to those
in power, in Burkina Faso and Belarus for example.

Keep silent! Or go to prison
As at 1st January 2005, 107 journalists were
deprived of their freedom. The tragic
stranglehold of dictatorships in Asia stands in
the way of all democratic progress. China remains
the biggest prison in the world for journalists
with 26 held there. However economic
liberalisation and the inevitable opening up of
the country to the outside world should have
positive consequences for free expression.
A few media attempt to challenge censorship and
to raise taboo subjects but they are subjected to
ever tougher crackdowns and made to pay heavily
for their "impertinence". Journalists have been
imprisoned in Burma and Vietnam for several years.
There was good news from Cuba with the release in
2004 of the famous poet Raúl Rivero and six other
journalists. But two years after the "black
spring" of March 2003, the island remains one of
the few places on earth where news is a state
monopoly and 22 journalists are still serving
time in prison.

The worst holds sway over the best
To look first at the worst cases, there are a
handful of countries in which people are
subjected to the crudest, most stereotypical and
vicious propaganda. First among these is North
Korea, where it is not even possible to talk
about "journalism". The state media officials
work, in fear, to promote the greater glory of
the "dear leader" Kim Jong-il and can be sent to
a "re-education" camp for a single spelling
mistake.  Turkmenistan is a medieval state ruled
with an iron fist by a president for life, more
interested in putting up statues of himself than
offering pluralism of news and information to his
fellow citizens. The few journalists who dare to
work for the international press, often in
secret, are regularly physically attacked and
routinely threatened. In Eritrea, which has been
cloaked in the deepest silence for three years,
the authorities have closed all the
privately-owned newspapers and their senior staff
thrown in prison.
At the other end of the press freedom scale are
to be found the democratic countries of Europe,
North America, Asia and Oceania which are the
most respectful of  the rights of journalists.
But even here there have been some worrying
abuses of free expression. In the United States
first of all, several journalists have been
summoned to appear before courts for refusing to
reveal their sources of information. Some of
them, whose cases are still outstanding, even
face prison terms or house arrest. In France as
well courts have on several occasions trampled on
the right to protect sources through periods in
custody, summonses and searches of journalists'
offices or homes.  Parliament has moreover passed
a law creating new press offences making
journalists liable to prison sentences.

The full version of the 2004 Global Press Freedom
Tour can be seen and downloaded from
www.rsf.org/media downloads.

Contacts at Reporters Without Borders
Christine Poumarède: 33 1 44 83 84 72 - presse@rsf.org
Jean-François Julliard: 33 1 44 83 58 - julliard@rsf.org

  15th World Press Freedom Day

! Embargo Tuesday 3 May 2005 at 00.01am (GMT)

Update of the "2004 Global Press Freedom  Tour" as at 28 April 2005


And in 2005?
Twenty-two journalists have been killed since 1st
January 2005, nine of them in Iraq

  The independent press in Africa had a tough year
from the beginning of 2005. Journalists were
thrown into prison in press cases in Cameroon,
Ethiopia, Guinea, Malawi, Mauritania, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Somaliland and Sudan. In some
countries like Zimbabwe and Rwanda, newspaper
editors brought before the courts had months of
struggle to avoid an imprisonment that is like
hell on earth.
Justice is rarely delivered in murder cases. In
Gambia, the official investigation into the
murder of Deyda Hydara bogged down in absurd
hypotheses, while draconian new laws were
promulgated. The disappearance of Guy-André
Kieffer in Cote d'Ivoire has still not been
cleared up and the authorities continue to
obstruct Ivorian and French investigations. In
February 2005, a fresh blow fell with the
mysterious murder in Somalia of British
journalist Kate Peyton.

On the American continent, 2005 began with the
pain of the murder of Colombian journalist Julio
Palacios Sánchez, on 11 January in Cúcuta.
Cuba remains the other black spot on the
continent's press freedom record. Twenty-one
journalists out of the 27 arrested in the spring
2003 crackdown are still being held in very harsh
conditions in which they have been reduced to an
appalling state of health.
In Venezuela, an ideological war between
supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chávez
is mainly played out in the media. The government
promulgated a law entitled "partial reform of the
criminal code" on 16 March. It set out prison
terms from six to 30 months for anyone who
"insulted" the head of state.
Finally, in the United States the legal battle
surrounding protection of sources is far from
closed. Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper are
still facing prison in the Plame case that
involved the outing of a CIA operative.

In Asia, the situation in the Philippines is
still very worrying. Two more journalists were
killed in 2005, helping to make the country the
most dangerous in the world for journalists after
Iraq.
In Nepal, King Gyanendra's power grab on 1st
February, led to a rapid slide in press freedom.
Several dozen journalists were arrested and
privately-owned media, particularly radios, came
under military censorship. All critical reports
about the king remain banned.
There was some good news from Burma. Four
journalists were released at the beginning of the
year, two of them having been jailed for 15 years
simply for publishing articles seen by the
military junta as "seditious". There was however
no sign of any improvement for Win Tin, the
country's best known imprisoned journalist. Held
since 1989, in March he "celebrated" his 75th
birthday in his cell at the notorious Insein
Prison in Rangoon.

In Europe, the two velvet revolutions in Ukraine
and Kyrgyzstan had a positive outcome for press
freedom. The tone of the public and
privately-owned media, released from rigid and
reactionary government censorship, has now
changed radically. A journalist was murdered in
Azerbaijan. Elmar Husseynov, editor of the
opposition weekly Monitor, was killed as he
stepped out of the lift on his way to his
apartment on the evening of 2 March. Several
theories were advanced about the murder including
that it was linked to his work as a journalist.
President Ilham Aliyev immediately denied any
involvement in the killing on the part of the
authorities and condemned "those behind this
crime", who, he said, were attempting "to damage
the image of Azerbaijan abroad".

In the Middle-East, the war in Iraq continues to
claim the lives of journalists. At least nine
have been killed since 1st January. And a series
of kidnappings continue. A few days after the
release, in December 2004, of the two French
journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges
Malbrunot, it was the turn to be abducted on 5
January of Florence Aubenas, veteran reporter for
French daily Libération along with her guide
Hussein Hanoun.
Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena of Il
Manifesto was held in Baghdad throughout the
month of February before being released by her
kidnappers. Iraqi journalist Raeda Wazzan was not
so lucky. She was abducted together with her ten
year old son. She was murdered a few days later.
Her kidnappers freed her son. Finally three
Romanian journalists were abducted in Baghdad on
28 March. They are Marie-Jeanne Ion, Sorin
Dumitru Miscoci and Eduard Ovidiu Ohanesian.

The update of the "2004 Global Press Freedom
Tour" can be viewed and downloaded from
www.rsf.org/media downloads.

Reporters Without Borders contacts
Christine Poumarède: 33 1 44 83 84 72 - presse@rsf.org
Jean-François Julliard: 33 1 44 83 84 58 - julliard@rsf.org


--
Benoît Hervieu
Despacho Américas / Americas desk
Reporters sans frontières
5, rue Geoffroy-Marie
75009 Paris - France

tél. : +33 (0) 1 44 83 84 68
fax : +33 (0) 1 45 23 11 51
e-mail : ameriques@rsf.org
	/ americas@rsf.org
----- End forwarded message -----