WANTED: P.R. Director for Haiti   

For a man who spent his three-year exile in Washington, D.C., the spin capital of the world, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide learned very little about how the press works.

Since his historic return to power last October, the Aristide administration's handling of the media has been problematic at best and arrogant at worst.

The media relations of the regimes preceding Aristide offer a sharp contrast to those of the current administration. The military regimes understood the value of cultivating the foreign press, probably because it allowed them to divert attention from the atrocities they committed. The media were the only conduit to the outside world for the military, because governments and international organizations treated it as a pariah.

But it seems as though the Aristide administration has no such agenda. In addition to typical problems with the press, such as an aversion to returning phone calls, the Aristide government has placed the most uncooperative officials in positions in which people skills are needed and has succeeded in alienating the foreign press.

"I don't think they took the time to see they could use the press to their advantage," says Kathie Klarreich, an American journalist who has covered Haiti for the Christian Science Monitor.

But at least the incompetence of Aristide's staff is not complemented with denial. "It is an office still in the making," Aristide spokesman Yvon Neptune says. "I have to say, frankly, we are at the stage of trying to better things."

This will not be easy. The government inherited by Aristide was thoroughly ransacked by the outgoing regime. The press office, staffed by 10 employees – one-third the target number – has just two telephone lines and only recently acquired a fax machine.

The Haitian government has also fallen into the classic Third World trap of failing to delegate responsibility. Even the tiniest scrap of information must be approved by the highest official source or come from an official spokesperson. This means reporters can spend an entire day trying to find out something as mundane as the age of a new public works minister or the Supreme Court justices.

And for those rare facts that are public knowledge, spokespeople refuse to verify them until Aristide makes an official announcement. Press office staffers steadfastly refuse to fax presidential decrees to reporters and it is common for flustered administration secretaries unable to answer questions to hang up on telephone interviewers. One journalist who called to ask for details about an upcoming palace function was instructed by officials to "listen to the radio."

Two foreign reporters who asked for interviews with Prime Minister Smarck Michel were told to try later in the week. His secretary assured them that if he decided to talk they would be informed. Neither received a call about the press conference that took place just before Michel left on a 10-day trip. The same secretary snubbed another foreign reporter trying to get access to Michel, accusing him of "smiling ironically."

Such incidents are widespread, according to Klarreich. "It's worst in the ministries because there's no structure," she explains. "At least at the palace there's someone to address your frustrations to."

Aristide's rebuff of the foreign press in Haiti is all the more surprising considering the largely favorable coverage he has received.

"I don't expect ministers to see me in 15 minutes, but I'd hope they would want to make their own case," says Carla Anne Robbins, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was in Haiti earlier this year. "They were making no attempt to get their story out. They basically left it to the Americans to sell a policy."

ýAristide has finally acknowledged the subpar treatment of some foreign reporters, and recently appointed a press liaison to deal with all foreign media, help arrange interviews and promote the government. Inside sources say he wants the situation improved immediately.

But for a government with several more pressing priorities at the moment, those attempting to cover the transition to Haitian democracy will probably be waiting for quite some time for Aristide to make good on even his best intentions.