Haiti

The state of press freedom has significantly improved. Journalists and media outlets have not been subjected to attacks or acts of intimidation of any sort from government authorities over the past couple of years. Nevertheless, obstacles to access to government and public information – a key element in the effective exercise of press freedom – remain intact. Journalists and the media have been facing enormous difficulties to get government authorities to release information regarding public governance. Such behavior also puts a brake on efforts aimed at ensuring transparency and fighting corruption and other abuses. The National Association of the Haitian Media ( ANMH) has been active in pushing for access to information to guarantee a more effective and fuller exercise of press freedom and freedom of expression in the country. In an unprecedented move to combat impunity, the courts have sentenced 11 murderers of journalists and their accomplices to life imprisonment. The 11 convictions were handed down in less than a year. The first were in August last year when two suspects were found guilty of active complicity in the kidnapping and killing of journalist Jacques Roche. Roche was murdered on July 14, 2005 after being tortured by his captors. The other nine verdicts, which came between December 2007 and January 2008, are related to the case of Brignol Lindor, murdered on December 3, 2000. An independent committee, made up of eight journalists from various media outlets, was instrumental in pushing for the holding of those trials and for those convictions. At least eight journalists – including Roche, Lindor, Gerard Denose, Jean Dominique and Alix Joseph – were killed in Haiti between 2000 and 2007. Several of the investigations are moving ahead, particularly those concerning the journalists mentioned above. Results of these investigation are expected to be announced in the next few months, according to judicial officials. But unfortunately several others have been dragging on, and continue to do so. Attacks on press freedom in 2008: Although the central government has not carried out or appeared to condone any direct attacks on press freedom, a number of police officers and local officials have attacked or tried to intimidate a number of journalists. On April 10, several journalists were wounded by rubber bullets fired by U.N. peacekeepers during a violent street demonstration near the presidential palace. Several media outlets – among them Tele Haiti, Vision 2000 and Magik 9 – came under attack from angry rock-throwing demonstrators. On April 13, Pedro Edouard, a cameraman of the government-run TV station TNH, was wounded when a police officer thrust a gun in his mouth and tried to kill him. The officer pulled the trigger, but the gun did not go off. He was arrested and taken into custody. On July 1, Marcel Joachim, a correspondent of Signal FM radio, was beaten up by a mayor and his bodyguards in Cap-Haitien. Legal proceedings are under way.. On August 6, news photographer Evens Saint-Felix was accosted by U.N. soldiers in the Cite Soleil shantytown. He was photographing a scene during which several U.N. soldiers were harassing two Haitian plain-clothes policemen.