Haiti’s media coup

Abstract

"The 2004 coup d’état in Haiti was, in no small part, executed through the media. While technically completed in the wee hours of February 29, 2004 by the US government, with diplomatic and military support from Canada and France, just as armed bands of ex-soldiers were threatening to invade the capital, the coup would likely not have been possible without the media. In an interview in December 2005, Guy Philippe, the commander of the armed destabilization that helped topple President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was explicit about how central media had been to the movement’s success in forcing out Haiti’s elected president: ‘The international media, the media leaders helped us a lot. And thanks to them we were able to overthrow the dictator. And without them I don’t think that we could have.’ While Philippe was speaking specifically about the international media, the point is perhaps even more relevant to the Haitian commercial media, given that many radio stations actively participated in the campaign of psychological warfare waged by Aristide’s opponents. The anti-Aristide movement boasted among its leaders a significant number of prominent Haitian commercial media owners and journalists, and was treated to virtually non-stop promotional coverage on many major radio stations in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince. This media-facilitated toppling of a popular elected government raises troubling questions about the US and Canadian governments’ media development programs, for many of the key players in the psychological warfare campaign that overthrew Aristide were linked to US and Canadian government financed programs to ‘promote democracy’ and foster ‘professional journalism."