18960: (Chamberlain) Haiti-Targeting the Press (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>
   By MARK STEVENSON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 21 (AP) -- Government supporters in Haiti are
increasingly harassing and attacking journalists, underlining growing anger
and desperation as they confront a bloody rebellion.
   One Haitian radio reporter was shot and wounded in the northern city of
Cap-Haitien on Saturday by government loyalists who accused him of working
for rebels.
   Three Mexican journalists were attacked Friday with rocks and machetes
by supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide while covering an
opposition march. They were saved by helmets and flak jackets, and weren't
seriously hurt.
   Another Haitian radio journalist, Radio Hispaniola director Elie Sem
Pierre, was shot twice in the back on Friday in Port-au-Prince. He was
among at least 14 people hurt when a protest was broken up by people
identified by marchers as Aristide supporters.
   Doctors said Pierre could be paralyzed by a bullet that passed through
his neck. He was speaking but could only move his left foot and was
undergoing surgery.
   "I don't want him to die," said his 14-year-old son Toto Pierre, crying.
   Pierre said he was driving with his son when a car filled with Aristide
loyalists ordered them to stop. He said two got into Pierre's car, ordering
him to drive on. Two blocks ahead, they ordered the son out and shot
Pierre.
   Even though Pierre wasn't allied with either side, he received
threatening letters accusing him of backing rebels, said Eluege Pierre, his
wife. "I told him to leave the country. If he would have listened to me
this would not have happened."
   The attacks came the same week Aristide urged the international press to
show the world how Haitians were fighting for democracy.
   "We share sympathy with all of you," Aristide told reporters Saturday.
"We will do our best to protect all human beings."
   He also blamed Friday's violence on "people from the opposition
claiming" to be his supporters.
   Increasingly, militants are confiscating photo and video images that
could reflect badly on Aristide's battered government -- or mark them for
retribution should the rebels win.
   Foreign reporters filming a chaotic scramble for scarce gasoline in
Cap-Haitien were surrounded by dozens of angry government supporters on
Thursday.
   "They don't have any right to come here and ask questions and take
photos," screamed one man. "Give us the cameras!" shouted others as they
pounded on the journalists' car.
   An Associated Press Television News cameraman was forced to hand over
his tape and an Associated Press photographer to erase images on a digital
camera.
   "I think they don't want the press, especially the foreign press, to
report what's going on here to the world," said Guy Delva, president of the
Association of Haitian Journalists, who long have been targeted by Aristide
loyalists.
   "There is no doubt anymore, they are specifically targeting the
(foreign) media," said Roberto Andrade, a cameramen for Mexico's TV Azteca,
who was chased, stoned and threatened Friday.
   A cameraman and reporter of the Mexican network Televisa also were
attacked. One was saved from a machete blow by his helmet.
   Andrade and the second Mexican cameraman hid in residents' houses as
militants searched for them; once found, the men demanded their tapes of
the march. The two claimed to have lost them.
   Many journalists have been subject to extortion attempts or had guns
waved at them, by both rebels and Aristide backers at roadblocks since the
uprising began Feb. 5.
   The rebels often are welcoming to journalists, but they also haven't
been free of threatening attitudes.
   "We welcome the press, but we will expel any lying journalists," said
Wilfort Ferdinand, a rebel leader.
   The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has
recorded more than 40 attacks on the press so far this year. Delva said
last year there were about 100. "Attacks on the press are increasing," he
said.
   A number of Haitian journalists have been threatened, shot or killed.
   Haiti's most prominent journalist, Jean Dominique, was assassinated in
2000 at his Radio Haiti-Inter station after his reports, once full of
praise for Aristide, turned critical.
   But foreigners had been largely spared until December, when Aristide
supporters at one demonstration began shouting, "Foreign press get out! We
don't want you here."