Jailing the News

Silencing an almost free press

All but unnoticed by the outside world, Haiti for the past two years had been moving haltingly toward a free press, of sorts. In a country that is largely illiterate, radio journalists led the way with lively, critical reports on such issues as the government's handling of the economy, violations of human rights and the steady emigration of starving boat people. On the latter subject, some Haitian weeklies were also sharply critical of the government's behavior. Thanks to stories about the boat people, complained Petit Samedi Soir, "Haiti has no prestige abroad. It is discredited everywhere."

Last week, after ignoring private warnings from government officials that criticism was going too far, the press was abruptly silenced. Bending to pressure by conservative businessmen and police hardliners, President-for-Life Jean-Claude ("Baby Doc") Duvalier, 29, ordered the arrest of 42 newsmen and opposition leaders. A Haitian economist justified the roundup on the ground that "this country with its poverty and misery is a bomb, and these newsmen could have been the detonator."

The crackdown was the most sweeping in Haiti since the dictatorial days of Jean-Claude's father, Franc,ois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier, who died in 1971. Under Papa Doc, the newsmen would probably have disappeared into one of the gruesome prisons run by his police goons, the Tonton Macoute. His son is more lenient. After a day or so in jail, 18 of the most influential reporters and editors were given one-way tickets to join other

Haitian exiles in Miami and New York. Among them: Radio Metropole News Director Marc Garcia, Radio Haiti's Michelle Montas and Gregoire Eugene, founder of the opposition Social Christian Party and publisher of the party-organ Fraternite newspapers. During a press conference at the United Nations, the new exiles scoffed at government charges that they were part of a "vast network of Communist-inspired agitators."

Haitian hard-liners have for some time been urging Baby Doc to tone down his frequent promises to democratize the country. His advisers claimed that the newscasts were destabilizing the country. Businessmen also preyed on Duvalier's worries over a meeting with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this week. Haiti's reserves are down to $2 million (from last year's $44 million), and the country needs aid desperately. But the journalists were filling the air waves with damning information about the President's economic bungling. Said one exile, Jean-Jacques Honorat: "They expelled us because of their own mismanagement of foreign aid and our national resources."

Following the arrests, Baby Doc told a mob of his supporters who gathered outside the gleaming white National Palace in Port-au-Prince that "intellectuals and thinkers have the right to exercise democracy day and night. All I ask is that they respect me." He also added that "democracy is not license." Meanwhile, the crackdown sparked rallies and prayer vigils in the major Haitian exile communities in the U.S. Correctly or not, the arrests will be used by the exiles as evidence that all the Haitian boat people--there are more than 30,000 in south Florida alone --are political refugees and thus eligible for sanctuary.

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