27257: Vishnu, Reply to Kathleen, 27120 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

VISHNUSURF@aol.com

Spanish journalist Ricardo Ortega was shot dead in Haiti on March 7, 2004.
He was a New York-based correspondent for Antena 3, a Madrid-based broadcast
network.  A South Florida Sun Sentinel Photographer, I believe, was also  shot
in the incident but survived.

Reporters Without Borders notes that 2 journalists were killed in Haiti in
2004 (not counting Ortega), 27 were physically assaulted, and 15 were
threatened.

RWB is pretty clear in its condemnation of the Aristide government:

"Attacks and threats continued against journalists who criticised President

Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The climate of terror was sustained by the continuing
impunity in the cases of two murdered journalists. Aristide extended his
control  over television but radio continued to be the most popular news
media."

As I recall, RWP held a press conference in Port-au-Prince in 2002 that was
met with a protest by Aristide supporters. One journalist, AJH's secretary
general, was threatened with pe lebrun by the cheery folks from  BALE WOUZE, as

per RWP's 2003 annual report.