By Carlos Lauría
As the preeminent political family in the northeastern state of Maranhão for more than 40 years, the Sarneys are used to getting their way in Brazilian civic life. So when the leading national daily O Estado de S. Paulo published allegations in June 2009 that linked José Sarney, the Senate president and the nation's former leader, to nepotism and corruption, the political clan did not sit idly by. The Sarneys turned to a judge in Brasília, winning an injunction that halted O Estado from publishing any more reports about the allegations. Eighteen months later, as 2010 came to a close, the ban remained in effect despite domestic and international outcry.
]]>Reflecting the devastation across all of Haitian society, the news media suffered massive losses in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck just west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, on the afternoon of January 12. More than 220,000 people died and 1.5 million were left homeless, according to official estimates. Government offices, schools, hospitals, and entire neighborhoods were reduced to ruins, as was most of the infrastructure supporting Haitian news media. More than 95 percent of commercial and community radio stations--the primary source of news in Haiti--went off the air as their equipment and premises sustained heavy damage, according to Joseph Guyler Delva, president of the local press freedom group SOS Journalistes. The human losses were great as well: At least 30 journalists died in the earthquake and its immediate aftermath, SOS Journalistes reported.
News from the Committee to Protect Journalists
]]>The court in the western city of Petit-Goâve sentenced to life in prison Jean Rémy Démosthène and Joubert Saint Juste, members of the local political organization “Domi Nan Bwa,” which had ties to former president Jean Bertrand Aristide’s Famni Lavalas party, according to reports in the Haitian press.
]]>Several unidentified gunmen shot at the Port-au-Prince offices of local station Radio-Télé Ginen, causing minor damages to the building’s infrastructure and to a car owned by the station, according to reports in the Haitian press. No one from the station’s staff was injured but a passerby was taken to a local hospital in critical condition.
]]>“We call on Haitian authorities to conduct a speedy and thorough investigation into the threats against Joseph Guyler Delva and to bring all those responsible to justice,” said CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon. “Authorities should also provide Delva with the necessary protection to allow him to continue to work safely.”
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New York, September 27, 2007—Haitian President René Préval has pledged support for an independent committee evaluating stalled investigations into a series of unsolved journalist murders this decade and said that all political obstacles to justice have now been removed.
On August 30, Port-au-Prince judge Jean Claude Rigeur sentenced Alby Joseph and Chéry Beaubrun, members of the local Solino gang, to life in prison for the 2005 kidnapping and murder of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, reported the Haitian press.
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