Foreign Reporters Face Rising Controls, Curbs

The Haitian government and its military masters, already well practiced at terrorizing their own citizens, are beginning to bare their teeth against foreigners, particularly journalists.

Foreign reporters, who always have faced minor and harmless harassment--at least contrasted with the brutal, often bloody treatment of the local press--are now confronted with increasing controls and even possible banishment, diplomatic and Haitian sources say.

Some of the harassment is official. Starting late in May, all reporters entering Haiti were required to obtain an official credential from the Ministry of Information.

But when a colonel in the military high command realized the press cards were free, he ordered payment, first of $25, then $50--in U.S. cash and renewable every four months.

Ministry officials said the next step is likely to be the closing of “national security areas” to the foreign press, including parts of the country where gasoline and other embargoed goods are smuggled into Haiti, meaning the border with the Dominican Republic and most ports.

In addition, the ministry officials said, the government is considering requiring journalists to obtain permission to leave Port-au-Prince on reporting assignments.

This would effectively leave the government and the military free to step up, without press witnesses, the already bloody repression in the countryside.

More ominous are the reports coming from the government that it may order all or most foreign reporters out of the country, on grounds that the journalists are in league with supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide or are serving as advance agents for a possible U.S. military intervention.

According to some sources, the issue is still under debate, with a few civilian officials and military officers arguing that it will isolate the country further.

Others say there is nothing to lose, that the presence of the journalists only inflames the already anti-Haitian sentiment of the international community.

However the debates turns out--and it may become moot for many who soon will find it impossible to get here in the wake of Friday’s halt by President Clinton of flights in and out of Haiti--journalists are finding it more and more difficult to work.

Television cameramen, in particular, are being accosted.

One was arrested recently and detained for five hours. He lost film he shot of trucks unloading smuggled gasoline at a major border crossing from the Dominican Republic.

Other TV reporters complain regularly of army personnel blocking camera shots and forcing news crews to leave sensitive areas.

Print reporters generally have been allowed to work, largely because it is easier for them to stay out of sight.

However, the government harasses them in indirect ways. Recently, the military ordered two of three international phone lines cut from a hotel favored by foreign reporters.

Freed was recently on assignment in Haiti.