29935: Ayiti Chanje (news) ACM CALLS FOR ACTION ON BADIO KILLING (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Ayiti Chanje <ayitichanje1804@hotmail.com>

ACM CALLS FOR ACTION ON BADIO KILLING

January 30, 2007 - The Association of Caribbean
MediaWorkers (ACM) is calling on Haitian authorities
to move swiftly to bring the killers of Jean-Rémy
Badio to justice and wants the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) to do more to end the isolation of this
Member State.

Mr Badio was a freelance journalist and photographer
and member of SOS Journalistes with which the ACM has
communicated in the recent past. He was shot to death
at his home on January 19.

It is especially distressing to note that that Mr
Badio's murder results from his work in reporting on
the operations of organised gangs in the
Port-au-Prince suburb of Martissant.

This killing suggests that changes in political
administration in Haiti have not served to reverse a
tendency by criminal elements with political agendas
to target journalists and media workers.

Firm and decisive action against such acts was
recommended by the ACM following our mission to Haiti
in 2002 while the murder of Jean Dominique in 2000 was
still being investigated without success.

We are concerned that this specific feature of the
Haitian landscape has not been suitably addressed by
the country's CARICOM allies, despite representations
made on the issue by the ACM.

For example, as far back as January 24, 2002 we
informed CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington,
in writing, that "our Haitian colleagues have stressed
the urgency of getting their information out to the
rest of the region because there is a belief that the
international media have neither paid sufficient
attention to nor displayed a high level of sensitivity
to their plight."

We have also used other fora to express concern that
while Haiti is being used in the public relations of
the CARICOM Secretariat as a valuable member of the
Community, it continues to be treated as a population
of "outsiders" by CARICOM Member States.

This continued isolation even within the CARICOM
system can only embolden elements bent on acting with
impunity against journalists and media organisations.

In this regard, we call on CARICOM to take measures to
bring some relief to this situation.

Dale Enoch
President

We acknowledge the assistance of Michael Deibert in
the shaping of this response from the ACM.

Association of Caribbean Media Workers
Trinidad, WEST INDIES

www.acmediaworkers. com

Dale Enoch, President: (868) 628-4955
Peter Richards, First Vice-President
Bert Wilkinson, Second Vice-President
Wesley Gibbings, General Secretary
Nita Ramcharan, Asst. General Secretary
Michael Bascombe
Canute James

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