From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Haiti: Press under attack
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 08:15:21 GMT

/** media.issues: 214.0 **/
** Topic: IPS:Haiti: Press Under Attack **
** Written  9:48 am  Sep 29, 1992 by hrcoord in cdp:media.issues **
From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: IPS:Haiti: Press Under Attack

/* Written 12:04 am  Sep 29, 1992 by newsdesk in
cdp:ips.englibrary */ Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all
rights reserved.  Permission to re- print within 7 days of
original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: HAITI: Press under attack since Aristide's ouster, says
report

washington, sep 25 (ips) -- since the ouster of exiled haitian
president jean-bertrand aristide almost exactly one year ago, the
military and its civilian allies have attempted to silence a once-
thriving press, according to a report by the new york-based
committee to protect journalists (cpj).

since the sep. 30 military coup, four journalists have been
killed, and yet another has disappeared and is now presumed dead,
says the 63-page report released here, entitled, 'bouch pe'.

bouch pe is taken from the creole saying, ''se je we, bouch pe'':
''your eyes can see, but your mouth can't speak'', cpj said.

in addition to the five deaths, at least 30 journalists have been
arrested and 15 more beaten, says the report. nine radio stations
have been attacked and vandalised, while six remain closed almost
one year after the coup. also, some two dozen journalists have
fled the country, while scores more remain in hiding, according to
the report.

immediately after the coup, radio stations -- the country's main
source of information -- became the first target of military and
paramilitary squads, cpj said.

five of haiti's most popular stations were forced off the air on
the first day, as soldiers invaded their premises, destroyed or
stole equipment and terrorised their employees, the report said.
one radio reporter was killed.

at the same time, the daily newspaper 'le nouvelliste' and the
magzine 'le rouleau' stopped publishing for at least a week after
the coup to avoid exposing their reporters to unnecessary risks,
according to the report.

two other publications -- 'libete', haiti's only creole- language
weekly paper, and 'balance' -- have not published since the coup.

in december, the government-operated radio nationale broadcast
death threats against 100 people, including 11 journalists.

an identical list had first been aired by a clandestine radio
station operated by the tontons macoutes, the paramilitary forces
which ruled much of the country under the quarter-century rule of
the duvalier family.

journalists in the countryside, according to the report, have
faced greater risks than their colleagues in the capital, the
report said. (more/ips)

haiti: press under attack since aristide's ouster, says
report(2-e)

haiti: press (2)

''scores of journalists have been hunted down'' by local ''section
chiefs'', duvalier-era sheriffs associated with the macoutes,
restored to power by the military after aristide's ouster and
exile.

at the present time, according to cpj, attacks against journalists
and media organisations are not as systematic or lethal as they
were immediately after the coup, and a few radio stations in
port-au-prince have begun to selectively broadcast news again.

some have even begun covering human rights abuses by airing
anonymous statements and information provided by activists or
grass-roots organisations.

cpj said the current de facto government headed by marc bazin has
generally been ''more honest'' about the difficulties facing the
press in haiti, but ''has taken no action to guarantee
journalists' safety or to punish those guilty of crimes against
journalists''. (end/ips/ip/jl/yjc/92)
** End of text from cdp:media.issues **

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