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The followoing is from Haiti Info. For information contact the
publishers at hib@igc.apc.org

                 *   *   *   HAITI INFO   *   *   *

            News direct from the people and organizations
             of Haiti's democratic and popular movement

                    18 May 1996, Vol. 4, #14



         MEDIA & THE OCCUPATION: A SIGNIFICANT CASE

On May 1, Inter Press Service (IPS) lost an editor. A wire service
with reporters in over 100 countries, IPS, which focuses on what
it calls the "Third World," is supported by sales to news outlets,
foundation grants and, to a large extent, grants from U.N.
agencies.

For the previous year, Daniel Coughlin, who had been a reporter
and editor with IPS for four years, headed an IPS project where he
was attempting to "fully develop IPS coverage of the Caribbean and
integrate Haiti into that coverage... and into the Americas as a
whole" through translation, reporting and distribution.

The project was never fully funded because, according to Coughlin,
"there was no real interest on anybody's part... to actually see
that whole project fully implemented." Coughlin said that, whereas
journalists and editors were pushing the project, to the relevant
IPS and U.N. bureaucrats, the main interest was "just to get
money," and when it did not come through, interest died.

But Coughlin also encountered political obstacles and decided not
to stay on with IPS, for the reasons he outlines in this interview
with Haiti Info:

Q: What was your experience on an editorial level?

I think it's really important to remember that in Haiti, it's a
military commitment from the U.N. and the U.S. It's a military
commitment above everything else, and therefore press and
information has a military aim, a military purpose, and that means
controlling and disseminating information that, at the very least,
does not hinder the objectives of your military mission. And so
you will find... a very high priority by the U.N. mission in Haiti
and the U.S. multinational force to controlling what kind of
information comes out within Haiti itself, and also through the
international wire services... IPS became important in this regard
because we distributed our information in Haiti, and when we wrote
articles that were critical or appeared to be critical of the U.N.
military mission and or the U.S. military mission, we became the
subject of quite a lot of pressure

Q: Can you give an example?

The most famous example is something called the 'Schlisser memo'
which was a memorandum written in September of 1995 by a U.S.
military official in the U.N. mission outlining a number of
different points, but including, and most alarmingly, advocating
having no justice for the 5,000 murder victims of the coup d'etat
because that was perceived by the bourgeoisie in Haiti as
retribution, and secondly, the importance of pushing through a
privatization program and overall structural adjustment program
for Haiti because, again, that would keep a profit going to the
Haitian bourgeoisie.

When this article was published, it created a huge outcry. The
U.N. was very, very upset about it, because obviously it revealed
some facts about the U.N.'s role in Haiti that officials did not
want to be publicly circulated... so, of course, U.N. officials
reacted very forcibly to this article and they denounced the news
agency. They denounced the journalist, myself, who wrote the
article, they questioned our 'intentions' and raised doubt about
the veracity of the reporting publicly and then, of course
privately, protested vehemently to the head of the  agency, and,
in my opinion, tried to get me fired...

The U.N. also cut off access to information to me. This is a
rather typical reaction of authorities... They cut off access to
information for me until such time as I wrote 'a public letter of
apology' explaining that I did not mean to cause 'public alarm'
about the U.N. role in Haiti. [He refused.]

That's just a little break-down of how they try to really pressure
journalists, how they try to control, particularly with a military
mission where they are very concerned about public perception
towards that military mission and to ensure that there is no
public opposition... I simply reported on a document. It wasn't
even a leaked document; it was an internal U.N. document which I
obtained and wrote about and seeing the emperor without his
clothes on obviously caused some embarrassment...

Q: What does this experience make you say about the possibilities
of doing good, professional journalism and the so-called 'freedom
of the press'?

Here we have a perfect example, I think... [of how] it's made
clear to you as a journalist that if you write about something
that the U.N. finds objectionable, they will make your life
miserable, and so a lot of journalists, of course, don't write
anything critical of the U.N.... Time and time again, there were
many, many stories about U.N. abuses of power, U.N. political
activities which would be highly embarrassing... that just don't
get reported. We could talk about the situation of the U.N.
soldiers in Gonaives who reportedly shot and killed two Haitian
demonstrators in November, 1995. That story was completely covered
up. There are dozens of other stories, perhaps equally alarming,
that were completely covered up, and also that journalists didn't
want to cover because they were afraid of the repercussions...

Q: What can you say about coverage?

[Regarding the non-Haitian journalists], unequivocally, there's
just no real reportage happening. It's simply a regurgitation of
official policy... Certainly, the non-Haitian journalists rarely
deviated from the line put out by the U.S. embassy and generally
would report that all the time, all the time.


ABOUT HAITI INFO:

* Haiti Info is published every two weeks in Haiti by the
Haitian Information Bureau, an alternative news agency, and
is edited by a group of committed individuals from democratic
and popular sectors.
* All articles Copyright HIB. REPRINTS ENCOURAGED.
Please cite Haiti Info and send copies of usage.
* Haiti Info is available by mail, by fax, and also
electronically via computer. Subscription rates range from
U.S. $20 to $100, depending on location and method of reception.

For subscriptions, other correspondence and help for journalists:
Haitian Information Bureau,
c/o Lynx Air, Box 407139, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 33340, USA.
For electronic mail:  hib@igc.apc.org.

________________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
AMARC - Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.apc.org/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +(593-2) 525-521    Fax/Tel: +(593-2) 542-818
Avenida America 3584, Casilla 17-01-1171, Quito, Ecuador