Haiti

Aa
$.-
Press freedom has shown a slight improvement in this period, with fewer acts of violence than in previous times, although a number of radio stations – the main news media in the country to which around 92% of the population has access – were subjected to attacks and police action. Following are the most relevant developments during the past six months: On March 30 the Justice Ministry announced that Judge Fritzner Fils-Aimé, in charge of the investigation into the murder of Jean Leopold Dominique in April 2000, was suspended for “serious acts of corruption.” Fils-Aimé was the sixth judge assigned to the case since 2006. To date only one suspect has been arrested, Mercidieu Toussaint. The crime continues to go unpunished. On April 11 Justice Minister Jean-Joseph Exume intervened in order to facilitate the removal of the seals placed some days earlier by the Governmental Commissioner of the Administrative Police in the city of Port-de-Paix, Jean Frederic Beneche, at the entrance of the newsroom in the building of the privately-owned radio station Ideale FM. The station had been shut down “for obstruction of justice,” because it had not agreed to disclose its sources of information in the case of Alain Desir, a Haitian alleged drug dealer arrested in Florida. The Justice Minister called in the secretary general of the press freedom defense organization SOS, Joseph Guyler C. Delva, and Beneche to tell them he regarded the act of censorship by a public official as intolerable. On May 12 journalist Gerald Guillaume, correspondent of radio station Melodie in Jeremie, was attacked by two police officers at the local headquarters of the Governmental Administrative Police. On June 16 the organization for the defense of press freedom, SOS, denounced what it said was a campaign of defamation and intimidation against reporter Liliane Pierre-Paul of radio station Radio Kiskeya, orchestrated by politicians and militants of Lavalas, who accused her of inciting people to attack Father Gerard Jean-Juste, now deceased, and of having taken part in that “beating,” which occurred during the funeral of journalist Jacques Roche at the Saint Pierre Church in Perion-Ville in July 2005. On July 10 an armed attack was staged on the home of Sainlus Augustin, correspondent of Radio Kioskeya and La Voz de las Américas in Hinche, Centro province. He said the threats came from Wilot Joseph, a Senate candidate, with the objective of silencing him after he had denounced serious wrongdoing in the elections. Augustin had been first attacked on April 19 by supporters of a congressman and sought refuge in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

Share

0