The Caribbean Overview

By Charles Arthur

It was another troubling year for the media in the Caribbean region. In the region’s three most populous countries - the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Haiti – journalists experienced a variety of limitations on their ability to practice their profession freely. Meanwhile, in the English-speaking Caribbean, the main issue of contention continued to be criticisms of ruling parties voiced on talk-radio programmes and the authorities’ often heavy-handed response. Thankfully in 2008 there was only one case of a media worker losing their life as a direct consequence of their employment.
In the Dominican Republic, the serious and worrying deterioration of the state of media freedom experienced in recent years continued, with media workers regularly subjected to threats of violence and intimidation. There was also further evidence of the judicial system being used to try to hinder the work of investigative journalists. In October, the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Prensa (SNTP, National Union of Press Workers) stated that since the beginning of the year a total of 32 journalists had been physically attacked or threatened, while 21 others had been the subject of judicial proceedings.

In the most serious attack, on 7 August Normando García, a cameraman for the daily news programme "Detrás de la Noticia" (Behind the News), was shot dead in the city of Santiago. The crime remains unsolved, but a colleague said he believed García was murdered in retaliation for his work covering drug-trafficking and crime. According to journalists in Santiago, García had received multiple death threats since the beginning of the year.
Concerning the large number of journalists being taken to court in the Dominican Republic, Mercedes Castillo, president of the Colegio Dominicano de Periodistas (CDP, the Association of Dominican Journalists), said, "Each case is different, but they merge together to create an atmosphere which limits our ability to pursue our work." One of the worst examples of the use of the courts to intimidate the media occurred when a dairy company sued investigative journalists Nuria Piera and Huchi Lora, after they filed a report indicating that the milk which the company supplied for school breakfasts lacked the levels of nutrients required by the Ministry of Education. The case took a turn for the worse in September, when a court granted permission for the authorities to search the journalists’ offices for archived tapes and other information of interest to the dairy company.

Huchi Lora said that the court order would be seen as a warning for journalists to steer clear of reporting on irregularities affecting anyone or any company that has a lucrative government contract. He added that it would greatly encourage the practice of self-censorship. In the event, such was the popular outcry against the ruling that it was never applied, and in December the courts threw out the dairy company’s defamation suit altogether.

In Haiti, the improvement in the general climate of media freedom during the presidency of René Préval continued, but earlier optimism about moves to end the state of impunity for murderers of journalists in previous years has faded. In December 2007 two people had been convicted of the 2001 murder of radio journalist Brignol Lindor, and in January of this year a further seven other people were convicted of involvement in his murder in absentia. However, disappointingly, by the end of the year, the authorities had not been able to apprehend any of them.
There was also no further progress in the long-running investigation into the 2000 murder of Radio Haiti Inter director, Jean Dominique. Yet another judge – the sixth in eight years – was appointed to lead the investigations, but his efforts met with little success. At the start of the year, the judge tried to question the powerful businessman, Rudolph Boulos, a possible suspect. But Boulos, who had recently been elected to the country’s Senate, refused to respond to a series of summonses, citing his parliamentary immunity.
In December there was a major set-back both for the investigation, and for the struggle to end impunity in general, when Guy Delva, the country’s most prominent media rights advocate and the head of the committee appointed by President Préval to help investigations into journalists’ murders, was found guilty of charges of defamation against Rudolph Boulos. In an unprecedented decision, Delva, who had repeatedly drawn attention to Boulos’ refusal to cooperate with the investigating judge, was sentenced to one month in prison. His appeal against the verdict was still pending at the end of the year.

Cuba continues to be an immensely difficult country for the independent media. Independent journalists and their families routinely face discrimination, sanctions and harassment at the hands of the authorities. However, during the year, there were some signs of a slight thaw in the state’s rigorous control over the media. In February, the government of President Raúl Castro released four prisoners, including independent journalists José Gabriel Ramón Castillo and Alejandro González Raga. The two were among the 27 journalists arrested in the so-called "black spring" crackdown of March 2003. As highlighted in IPI’s Justice Denied Campaign, 22 journalists are still held in jail, where they are sometimes kept in solitary confinement. Suffering from appalling hygiene conditions, rotten food and inadequate medical care, it is feared that some of the journalists could die as a result of the conditions in the prisons.
Also in February, the Cuban government signed two UN human rights pacts. The following month there was another encouraging signal when the authorities announced the lifting of restrictions on individuals’ acquisition of computer equipment.

One of the countries in the English-speaking Caribbean where the media faced the most difficulties in 2008 was Guyana. In April, the television station CNS TV6 had its license to broadcast suspended for four months following controversial comments by a member of the public during a political affairs talk-show. The owner of CNS, Chandra Narine Sharma, who is also the leader of a small opposition political party, said that his station had been singled out for harassment by the authorities – while others were getting away with similar infringements – because he gave airtime to opposition politicians. The station had been closed down for a month by the authorities in January 2005, and for two days in 2002. The Guyana Press Association (GPA) unequivocally condemned the decision, stating that "undoubtedly, due process has been violated and sacrificed at the altar of political expediency and self-interest."
In July, the actions of the Guyanese authorities again raised protests when Capitol News TV reporter and producer Gordon Moseley was declared persona non grata in the office of the president. The Government Information Agency had withdrawn his accreditation and accused him of making "disparaging and disrespectful remarks" about the government in a letter to the Stabroek News. Media freedom advocates claimed that barring a journalist because his comments displeased the president was an attack on pluralism and on the media’s critical role. In response to the ban, members of the GPA announced a temporary boycott of all government functions as a form of protest against the decision. There was better news in April when the government resumed advertising with the Stabroek News. The state advertising boycott of the newspaper – which had lasted for 17 months - had been viewed as official action to stifle dissent and to punish recalcitrant media.
In Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister Patrick Manning upset media freedom advocates when, in early November, he made a personal visit to the Power 102 radio station to complain about the "unprofessional conduct" of two of the station’s broadcasters. Manning insisted that he was exercising his right as an ordinary citizen, and had just "dropped into the station" on his way home. The Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago remained unconvinced, describing Manning’s visit to the radio station as "unprecedented", and one that could be perceived as an attempt to intimidate or stifle media freedom. The Trinidad and Tobago Publishers and Broadcasters Association said that it was unacceptable for an organisation or person "who is of the view that he has been wronged" to "enter the premises of a broadcaster to have the incorrect information corrected."

In February, the arrest of a Jamaican journalist working in Grenada, and a subsequent order for her to leave the country, once again raised questions about regional governments’ commitment to media freedom and to the concept of the free movement of media workers throughout the CARICOM bloc. Tenesha Thomas, who was in Grenada on behalf of CaribUpdate - a regional news agency based in Florida – was arrested on the grounds that her visa had expired, and then told she had 24 hours to leave the country. The Association of Caribbean Media Workers condemned the move, and the organisation’s head, Wesley Gibbings, said, "The order for her to leave the country can be viewed as a hostile act against her and her news agency for reasons that have to do with the practice of journalism." The government of Grenada later said it would allow Thomas to remain until her assignment was completed.