From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Haiti: DR Creole radio station threatened with closure
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 03:46:30 GMT

/** reg.carib: 290.0 **/
** Topic: DR RADIO STATION THREATENED **
** Written 11:39 am  Jul 21, 1992 by lchr in cdp:reg.carib **
 
For Immediate Release                     July 17, 1992
 
                     PRESS RELEASE
 
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO CLOSE DOWN   
  RADIO STATION UNLESS IT CEASES BROADCASTS TO          
                    HAITI IN CREOLE
 
                              For more information
                              contact:
 
                              William G. O'Neill
                              212-629-6170, x.153 (o)
                              718-499-7416 (h)
 
Radio Enriquillo, one of the last remaining sources for
Haitians of uncensored news in the Crole language,
received an order from the Director General of the
Dominican Republic's Department of Telecommunications
on July 14 threatening to close down the station unless
it stopped all Crole broadcasts.  Radio Enriquillo is
in the town of Tamayo near the Dominican border with
Haiti.
 
President Balaguer had issued an order in February to
Radio Enriquillo to cease Crole-language news
broadcasts to Haiti because of a "threat to public
order."  The legal basis for his order was a law that
allegedly prohibits broadcasts in any language other
than Spanish.  President Balaguer later admitted that
the Haitian de facto authorities had requested him to
stop the news broadcasts.
 
Radio Enriquillo then began to "sing the news" in
Crole to Haiti since the order prohibited only news
broadcasts in Crole, not songs.  At 7:05 a.m. on
Tuesday, July 14, Mr. Leopoldo Nu$ez Santos, the
Director General of the Department of
Telecommunications, arrived in Tamayo accompanied by
     soldiers and gave the directors of Radio 
Enriquillo an ultimatum:  "If you don't immediately
stop all transmissions in Crole, the station will be
shut down."  The radio has suspended all Crole
broadcasts.
 
William G. O'Neill, deputy director of the Lawyers
Committee for Human Rights, stated:
 
The Dominican government's recent threat to shut Radio
Enriquillo is a blatant violation of international law. 
Both the Dominican Republic and Haiti have ratified the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
which guarantees "the right to receive and impart
information of all kinds, regardless of frontiers." 
Prohibiting news broadcasts in Crole deprives the
Haitian people of access to uncensored, objective news
about their country in their native language and only
intensifies the Haitian de facto authorities' control
over the Haitian news media and the public's access to
information.
 
The Lawyers Committee calls on the Dominican
authorities to rescind their threat immediately and to
guarantee Radio Enriquillo's right to impart
information as specified in Article 19 of the Covenant. 
The Lawyers Committee also requests the Haitian de
facto authorities to cease all threats directed towards
the media and journalists in Haiti and to uphold its
obligations under the Covenant to assure freedom of
expression.
 
Since 1978 the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has
worked to promote international human rights and
refugee law and legal procedures in the United States
and abroad.  Its work is impartial, holding each
government to the standards affirmed in the
International Bill of Human Rights.  

The Committee has investigated and reported on human
rights abuses in all regions of the world.  The
Chairman of the Lawyers Committee is Marvin E. Frankel; 
Michael H. Posner is its Executive Director.  Martha L.
Doggett coordinates the Americas and Caribbean Program.
** End of text from cdp:reg.carib **