Haiti

HAITI George Michel, an editorial writer for Radio Metropole and a frequent contributor to two of the capital's established newspapers, Le Matin and Le Nauvelliste, believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but he is not taking any chances. With elections two months away and mounting killings by death squads, Michel packs a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver in his briefcase. Michel and the few other journalists who have been testing the limits of freedom of expression in Post-Duvalier Haiti are feeling pressures and sometimes even bending. Threatening phone calls often follow the broadcast of some misdeed by a former henchmen of either Fran~ois "Papa Doc" Duvalier or his son Jean-Claude. Cash bribes and promises of better paying government jobs are frequently offered to these journalists. Many reporters have been confronted on the job by officials and citizens taking political sides. The practice of standard journalism as we know it is severely limited in Haiti. It is risky business. The threats are mostly that - just threats. But since the younger Duvalier left for France in February 1986 and was replaced by one short-lived military provisional government after another, journalists have suffered beatings, with soldiers also confiscating their tape recorders and press cards. Marcus Plaisimont, a reporter at Radio Metropole who says he has been beaten by soldiers, was about to do a story on corruption in the state-owned telephone company, but was offered $5,000 by a high-level government employee who told him to drop his research. When he refused, he said he was told that the person who offered him the bribe could spend $50 to get him killed. Of course, he dropped the story. Plaisimont says his colleagues are discouraged from going into journalism. Joseph Celigny Celicourt, a correspondent for Radio Citadelle in Cap Haitien and the head of a local journalist aSSOCiation, said he strongly protested the March beating of Joseph Claude Larousse, another reporter, while he was reporting a story. Celicourt, who freelances for the Voice of America of the United States, says his complaint was heard but not acted upon. Besides protesting, the reporters in the streets of Haiti have had to develop a new survival instinct. Jacques Damas, also of Radio Citadelle, said soldiers look at journalists as enemies. Journalists say that the state of their profession as the election approaches reflects the chaos and confusion in the political life of the country. They complain that they have little or inadequate training. They wonder if it is worth risking their lives for an average salary of $150 a month a one of the capital's 20 radio stations or newspapers. In addition, journalists have no access to records or documents in Haiti. Coverage of the elections in general is limited to superficial candidate profiles instead of the in-depth investigative pieces that could help illiterate voters choose between the lesser of two evils. Journalism has been at a low point in Haiti since 1957, when "Papa Doc" Duvalier rose to power. During the 30 years the family ruled the country, journalists were cowed by fear of the dreaded Tonton Macoutes. Journalists were left with little chOice: write positive news about the government or be killed. Many fled to Miami or Europe or quit writing. The general complaint in Haiti is that the press doesn't say what the pUblic needs to hear. Instead, it tells the public what it wants to hear, an important difference in a country where more than 85 per cent of the population doesn't know how to read and write. Michelle Montes, a Columbia journalism school graduate and news director at Haiti Inter, another of the capital's radio stations, is regarded as an "engaged journalist." Few media in under-developed countries practice western-style journalism, she said. She said engaged journalists have priorities, and that in Haiti, the priority of the broadcast news operation is geared toward the poor, who are the majority of the population. Illiteracy and political turmoil bend news judgment too, she said. Haitians tune out the government and turn on Haiti Inter because they find answers there, she said. Montes says her station needs more reporters. She said many reporters are learning their craft in the field and are not able to grasp who is important, what is essential, to give to their listeners. She says journalists in Haiti could be compared to New York tabloid journalism. There is no norm, little ethics, only screaming headlines.