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Council On
Hemispheric Affairs |
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Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the
Western Hemisphere |
| COHA
Commentary 05.13 |
Word Count: 750
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COMMENTARY FROM COHA:
Who's Afraid of the Haitian Media? |
Analysis prepared by Kathryn Tarker,
COHA Research Associate
Wednesday, 27 July 2005
One long day
in Pointe Noire, on my vacation from volunteer work in the forest, the
Congolese painter Trigo Piula and I sat arguing in his jumbled studio
about whether there is a spiritual element to canvasses. There was
little common ground to be found between us, and after debating at
length he gave up on me. He declared that I simply must not be “tuned
in,” and to prove his point about “active invisible forces,” he switched
on a smooth Congolese radio station before conjuring up yet another
image.
If only “tuning in” were always so benign. In 1994, the low droning rant
from Hutu extremists on Radio-Télévision Libre des Mille Collines
provoked mass slaughter in Rwanda with its lethal mixture of target
locations and accompanying calls to arms. “Exterminate the cockroaches,”
said the voice, and a people shaped by a colonial culture of submission
dutifully hacked their friends and neighbors to pieces. Now, and in our
own hemisphere, Haitian print and electronic media have done comparable
diabolic work as they relentlessly polarize their country and help to
draw a new roadmap for political persecution. The most recent example is
the July 21st mobbing and arrest of Father Gérard Jean-Juste, one of the
country’s true heroes, for the still unsolved murder of Haitian
journalist Jacques Roche, while he was presiding over the latter’s
funeral.
Full
article...
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