(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has denounced as “intolerable” the nearly 40 attacks on press freedom so far this year by government-sponsored gangs and supporters of opposition activists calling for the resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The violence against media and journalists has included automatic-weapon fire against media offices, the burning down of radio stations, the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has denounced as “intolerable” the nearly 40 attacks on press freedom so far this year by government-sponsored gangs and supporters of opposition activists calling for the resignation of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The violence against media and journalists has included automatic-weapon fire against media offices, the burning down of radio stations, the destruction of transmitters and threats to kill journalists. “These are the actions of thugs and we call for them to stop,” the organisation said.
In the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, the local studio of the privately-owned station Radio Vision 2000, which is critical of the government, was attacked on 7 February 2004 by armed men who smashed equipment with hammers before setting fire to the studio. Local citizens were left with no independent news source.
More than 20 media outlets, mostly radio stations, have been forced to close, stop broadcasting news or have been threatened since the beginning of the year. Nine media transmitters were vandalised and rendered unoperational on 13 January, when armed men smashed installations in the Boutillier neighbourhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince (see IFEX alert of 15 January 2004). A defector from the ruling Fanmi Lavalas party, who gave his name as “Béry”, said later that the attack was led by a member of the presidential security force.
On 18 January, two radio stations were set on fire in Saint-Marc, northwest of Port-au-Prince. Thugs opened fire on the studio of Radio Lumière de la Jeunesse Saint-Marcoise, which relays news from independent stations, and then tried to burn it down. Station owner Louis Jeune Ulysse said government supporters were responsible for the attack. Radio Delta’s studios were set on fire the same day. On 15 January, opposition supporters had set fire to the studios of Radio Pyramide and Radio America (see alert of 19 January 2004).
Four journalists have been physically attacked and a dozen others threatened since the beginning of 2004. On 18 January, Lavalas defector Béry said that at a meeting of Lavalas officials, the names of four journalists from independent media outlets had been added to a list of people to be killed. Radio Tête à Tête director Marc-Antoine Adolphe and Radio Atlantik director Gérard Jacques, both from Cap-Haïtien, have been in hiding since January after receiving threats.
