By Javier Valdivia*

Journalist murders decreased in Haiti in 2023 compared to the previous year, but the local press continued to be a victim of crimes, kidnappings, and multiple threats due to high levels of instability and violence prevailing in the country.

The absence of guarantees, the lack of minimum safety conditions, and the high degree of impunity throughout Haiti marked a dark year for the press, which remained committed to its work despite the serious dangers it faces.

Journalists Paul Jean Marie from Radio Lumière (May 5), Ricot Jean from Radio-Télé Évolution Inter (April 25), and Dumesky Kersaint from Radio Télé Inurep (April 18) were murdered in the northern town of Saint-Marc and on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. No one was arrested for these crimes.

In 2022, one of the deadliest years for the Haitian press in several decades, nine journalists were killed: Francklin Tamar from Radio Solidarité; Fritz Dorilas from Radio Megastar; Romelo Vilsaint and Wilguens Louissaint, both contributors to digital media; Garry Tess from Radio Lebon FM; Frantzsen Charles from FS NEWS; Tayson Lartigue from Tijèn Jounalis; Maxihen Lazarre from Roi des infos, and Amady John Wesley from radio Écoute FM.

Kidnappings also affected Haitian press workers in 2023, with a total of five cases. The latest was Banatte Daniel, kidnapped on December 15 and released 11 days later after a ransom payment that could have reached $500,000, as reported.

Haitian media reported on the kidnapping of Radio Scoop FM presenter Pierre-Fils Saintamour, which occurred in a populous commune northeast of Port-au-Prince. Saintamour was kidnapped on November 27 in the company of his two children and pregnant wife, and released on December 8 after a high sum of money was paid, according to the victim’s statements.

Three other kidnappings occurred in 2023. Marie Lucie Bonhomme Opont, a journalist from Radio Vision 2000, was kidnapped for a few hours on June 14; Pierre Louis Opont, Bonhomme’s husband and co-owner of Télé Pluriel, was kidnapped on June 20 and released on August 25, and Blondine Tanis, co-host on Radio Rénovation FM 107.1, was kidnapped on July 21 and released nine days later. Journalist Juno Jean-Baptiste reported that he was a victim of a kidnapping attempt on December 22 but managed to escape.

The constant violence exerted by gangs directly affected a dozen Haitian journalists. In early September, some of their residences were burned, and others were forced to leave their homes in Carrefour-Feuilles, a populous sector southwest of Port-au-Prince where the gang known as Grand Ravine controls the area. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 16,000 people had to take refuge due to fear of violence.

Among the affected journalists were Réginald Esaie Orélus and Richardson Jourdan from Télévision Nationale d’Haïti (TNH); Jacques Desrosiers, secretary-general of the Haitian Journalists Association; Celou Flécher and Dessources Dieumaitre, directors-general of Le Facteur and Fact Checking News, both digital media; and Samuel Dallemand and Rubens Artist, reporters for Télé Ginen.

Additionally, Jean Yves Saint-Louis, journalist from Radio Lumière; Kettia Marcellus from the Solidarity of Haitian Women Journalists organization (SOFEHJ in French); Jacques Stevenson Saint-Louis, journalist from Radio Educativa, Ministry of Education; Arnold Junior, reporter from Radio Galaxie, and Judex Vélima, reporter from Télé Espace.

At the end of August, the same Grand Ravine gang members had already set fire to the house of journalist Arnold Junior Pierre, who was left homeless with his family.

Assaults on journalists were also common. On July 20, reporters Daniel Lamartinière from Vant Bèf info and Jameson Jean Baptiste from JB Média were beaten by a police officer while covering a demonstration against the government in the capital. On July 23 in Liancourt (north), the headquarters of radio Antarctique 96.1 FM was set on fire during a gang attack.

On July 31, reporter Arnold Junior Pierre was beaten while covering a protest southwest of Port-au-Prince; on August 11, Brown Larose, host of the “Matin Débat” show on Radio Télé Éclair, was shot in front of his home but survived the attack, and in December, reporter Johnny Ferdinand eluded an attack by armed men on motorcycles.

In terms of legal problems, the AyiboPost portal and its editor-in-chief, Widlore Mérancourt, were sued on September 14 by Delphine Gardère, owner of Ron Barbancourt, one of Haiti’s major companies, alleging that a report on June 7 about the company made defamatory accusations about Gardère’s election as president of the Franco-Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

On December 10, Wilkens Thirogène (alias Pouchon), detained for several months for his alleged involvement in the murder of journalist and political commentator Garry Tesse in October 2022, was released.

In a letter to the Minister of Justice, Emmelie Prophète, the organization SOS Journalistes criticized the prosecutor at the Les Cayes first-instance court (southwest) for releasing the alleged accomplice and called for actions to prevent impunity in this and other unresolved cases of journalist crimes.

In 2023, Haitian journalism also lost two iconic figures.

On July 31, at the age of 70, Lilianne Pierre-Paul, a reference for freedom of expression, the fight for democracy, and human rights, passed away at her home in Port-au-Prince due to a massive heart attack as she was getting ready to go to the facilities of Radio Kiskeya, the popular station she co-founded on May 7, 1994.

Pierre-Paul helped establish the popularity of Radio Haiti Inter and later rose to become the owner of Kiskeya and later vice president of the National Association of Media of Haiti (which she helped found in 2001), the last position she held. Born on June 16, 1953, in the southeastern city of Petit-Goâve, the renowned journalist suffered imprisonment and exile for confronting the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier in the seventies and eighties but also witnessed her country’s transition to democracy in 1987.

On October 26, in the city of Brockton, Massachusetts, Jean-Claude Sanon, a recognized sports columnist and radio announcer, died. In addition to being a footballer, Sanon served as the secretary-general of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF). Sanon (82), was a prominent columnist in publications such as Nouveau Monde and Le Nouvelliste, and since 1965, he hosted a sports show on Radio MBC, where he would become its most representative voice, both in the narration of football matches and other sports disciplines.

One of the few pieces of good news occurred on March 2 when the dean of the written press, Le Nouvelliste, resumed circulation after a five-month disruption due to the crisis affecting the country, although its distribution still did not reach sectors of the Haitian capital. In its editorial that day, the leadership of the main local morning newspaper highlighted its return but warned that its physical reappearance occurred at a time when the center of Port-au-Prince, the “historical home” of Le Nouvelliste, continued to be plagued by violent clashes.

The newspaper announced on October 27, 2022, its “painful obligation to suspend its circulation until further notice,” unable to supply fuel, distribute the newspaper, and after exhausting its last paper stocks. The reasons were the blockade imposed by a gang on the main fuel terminal in the capital and the extreme violence exerted by gangs dominating various areas of Port-au-Prince.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) frequently condemned the fragile situation of the Haitian press, the murders, and the attacks on media representatives. It also called on the government to take necessary actions so that crimes against journalists do not go unpunished and urged authorities to develop mechanisms to assist those who have been forced to leave their homes due to high levels of violence.

On October 3, the United Nations approved the dispatch of a multinational force to the country to assist the police in ensuring the safety of the population. The mission, which is expected to be led by Kenya, is awaiting a decision from the Kenyan Supreme Court to allow its deployment.

That same month, the UN Security Council renewed a resolution approved in 2022, imposing a regime of sanctions and ‘demanding the immediate cessation of violence, criminal activities, and human rights abuses undermining the peace, stability, and security of the country and the region.

*The author is the Regional Vice President for Haiti of the IAPA Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.

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Dumesky Kersaint never flinched when it came to investigating violence in his gang-controlled suburb of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. On the morning of April 16, the 31-year-old radio reporter left before dawn to cover a previous night’s shooting near his home in Carrefour-Feuilles. He never came back.

Several hours after setting out, Kersaint’s body was found in the street with a bullet in his forehead, sprawled next to another corpse believed to be a victim of the shooting Kersaint had set out to investigate.

Kersaint, a 31-year-old father to a baby daughter, worked for Radio-Télé INUREP, an online media outlet run by a local university. “He lived and breathed journalism, it was his entire life. That’s why we hired him,” Fabien Iliophène, the rector of INUREP university, told CPJ in an interview.

There is little chance that Kersaint’s killers will ever be brought to justice. Haiti is in crisis, its economy battered by natural disasters and gang violence. The July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse dashed any lingering hopes for a new democratic era more than three decades after the popular rebellion that ended the dictatorship of the Duvalier family in 1986. Moise’s assassination left a political void that allowed gangs to seize control of large parts of the capital and journalists forced to work in what lawyers and media experts say is a climate of almost total lawlessness. The result is a press corps that tries to report against all odds, but is often terrified into self-censorship.

Overall, some 3,000 people were murdered and more than a thousand kidnapped in the first nine months of this year, according to the United Nations. Law enforcement officials believe the country is home to around 200 gangs, which sometimes target journalists or threaten them over what they report.

Kersaint is one of at least five Haitian journalists murdered in direct reprisal for their work since Moise’s assassination. According to CPJ’s 2023 Global Impunity Index, their unsolved killings – along with a sixth murder in 2019 – have placed Haiti as the world’s third-worst country, behind Syria and Somalia respectively, when it comes to justice for murdered journalists over the past 10 years.

Radio-Télé INUREP news director Jacques-Antoine Bazile told CPJ that he believed Kersaint was killed in retaliation for his work. Witnesses told the university that Kersaint was photographing the crime scene when an unidentified man approached him and demanded he delete those photos.

“It was a deliberate and planned crime,” Bazile said. “It’s possible that he wanted to film the murder scene and, not wanting to give the camera away to nullify any possible trace of evidence, he was executed.”

The United Nations office in Haiti, BINUH, said in a recent report that impunity remains widespread in Haiti, with the judicial system plagued by corruption, political interference, and strikes, resulting in few being held accountable for the violence. With nowhere to turn, some Haitians have taken justice into their own hands, forming a movement known as Bwa Kale, or “peeled wood”, to punish alleged gang members.

“I have never seen the situation as bad as it is now,” the U.N. Independent Expert on Haiti, William O’Neill, told CPJ after returning from a 10-day fact-finding trip to the country this summer.

Haiti’s National Police lacks the funds and resources to take on the gangs, with only an estimated 10,000 active officers serving a country of more than 11 million. In a last-ditch effort to restore security, the U.N. Security Council voted on October 2 to send a multinational armed force to Haiti for one year, though it is unclear how soon it will be deployed.

This summer, the gangs expanded their territorial control into residential neighborhoods such as Carrefour-Feuilles, where thousands of residents were forced to flee, in some cases after their homes were set afire. CPJ has documented the cases of several journalists who fled the area, including at least two who said their homes were destroyed by arson.

Gang violence has also spread to other parts of the country. In July, the owner and staff of Radio Antarctique in Liancourt, in Haiti’s central Artibonite region were forced to flee after gang members attacked the station, setting fire to its studios as part of an arson attack on the town. Police had fled the town weeks earlier and only recently returned, according to Radio Antarctique’s director and founder Roderson Elias. He told CPJ that the station remains off the air and gangs continue to control the town.

“We are on our own, helpless against the gangs,” said Elias, who has since left the country. “One day I would like to return, but right now we can’t count on our local authorities to protect us,” he added.

In addition to the five journalists murdered in connection with their work since the presidential assassination, CPJ has documented an additional four journalists killed in the same time period. (In one of the four cases, the death was work-related; in the others, CPJ is still trying to confirm whether the killings were related to journalism.)

One case, the fatal shooting by police of photojournalist Romelson Vilcin in October 2022 while covering a protest, resulted in a rare investigation by the Inspector General of the police, which sanctioned the officer involved with a three-month unpaid leave, according to National Police Inspector General Fritz Saint Fort. He told CPJ that his office recommended that law enforcement units receive training to be “more professional and respectful” in their dealings with citizens.

Vilcin’s death occurred a few days after an attack on another journalist, Roberson Alphonse, the news editor at the country’s oldest daily newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, who is also a radio and television journalist on Magik9 and Télé 20.

Alphonse survived what the Miami Herald described as an “apparent assassination attempt” while driving in the Delmas 40B neighborhood early in the morning of October 25, when his vehicle was hit by several bullets as he drove to work. He was shot in the chest, stomach, and arms, and spent eight days in hospital. He said he was questioned by police investigators about the attack while in hospital but heard nothing from authorities after that.

He has since left the country. “I have to go back, but I don’t know when it will be safe. I can’t allow anyone to silence my voice,” Alphonse told CPJ.

Multiple journalists have been kidnapped in recent months. CPJ spoke to several who were released and they said that they were not aware of police conducting investigations into the incidents.

Legal protections for journalists in Haiti have never been strong, but local journalists say they have never encountered a more dismal situation.

“The Haitian justice system has historically been ineffective in Haiti,” according to Widlore Mérancourt, editor-in-chief of online news site AyiboPost. He noted previous high-profile incidents involving journalists, like the still-unsolved 2000 killing of Jean Dominique or the 2018 disappearance of Vladjimir Legagneur. “However, the system is now facing an overwhelming crisis,” he told CPJ, saying the assassination of Moïse had pushed the country to the brink of total breakdown, including the judicial system.

“With no functioning parliament, gangs have taken control of entire courts, judges have fled the country for their safety, and court proceedings are irregular … which translates into more preventive detention, no thorough investigations and almost complete impunity for those who attack or kill members of the press,” said Mérancourt, who also reports for The Washington Post from Haiti.

In the case of Kersaint, several sources told CPJ that he was likely murdered because of his efforts to document a spate of recent crimes in Carrefour-Feuilles, a strategically located neighborhood hotly contested by rival gangs and the police.

Kersaint’s family members told CPJ they had not filed any legal complaint and had not been contacted by authorities after collecting his body from the morgue. They said they had no knowledge if any official investigation took place.

The university said it was also unaware of any official investigation into Kersaint’s murder. “Sadly, the security conditions in Carrefour today do not favor the pursuit of an inquiry,” said Iliophène.

Radio-Télé INUREP recently renamed its studio to honor its fallen journalist, including a plaque in his name, Iliophène told CPJ. The university, which has about 5,000 students, also plans to award an annual “Dumesky Kersaint Prize” for excellence in reporting.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the August 23 arson attack on the home of radio reporter Arnold Junior Pierre and calls on Haitian authorities to restore order to the country so journalists can do their jobs without fear of retaliation.On August 23, unidentified armed individuals set fire to Pierre’s home and several other houses in the Carrefour-Feuilles neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ, and his employer, the local independent broadcaster Radio Télé Galaxie.

The journalist and his family were able to escape the home unharmed.

For the past month, thousands have fled the neighborhood amid violence by members of the Grand Ravine gang, who have injured and killed citizens, and burned and looted their homes.

“The arson attack on Haitian reporter Arnold Junior Pierre’s home illustrates the deteriorating security situation in the country, which has made it nearly impossible for journalists to work safely,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, in São Paulo. “We are deeply concerned by the unstable conditions in Haiti and urge authorities to take control of the situation and help journalists do their work.”

Renan Hédouville, head of Haiti’s Office of the Protector of Citizens, an independent state entity, said in a statement that the situation in Pierre’s neighborhood, Carrefour-Feuilles, was a “real nightmare.” He also invited police leadership “to adopt without delay, concrete measures, in order to provide immediate and proportional responses to this situation” in Carrefour-Feuilles.

On Tuesday, August 29, the police substation in Savane Pistache, the area where Pierre’s family lived, was burned down. CPJ contacted national police spokesperson Gary Desrosiers via messaging app but did not receive a reply.

“I’m afraid for my life. Looking at the situation, I don’t have complete confidence in the [police],” Pierre told CPJ. He said he believed he was targeted for his work but did not know what specific coverage may have prompted the attack.

On July 31, an unknown number of hooded men beat Pierre as he covered a demonstration in the southwestern part of Port-au-Prince, the journalist told CPJ, adding that a police officer later threatened him after he took a picture, saying he would have killed the journalist if they were not from the same neighborhood. Pierre said he received medical treatment for a cut to the back of his head following the encounter but still experiences eye and head pain.

CPJ has documented an uptick in the number of journalists who have been attacked or abducted in Haiti amid the political chaos and violence following the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

In July 2023, an arson attack destroyed the independent local station Radio Antarctique in one of the largest assaults on a town by gang members.

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*By Javier Valdivia, Special to the Inter American Press Association (IAPA)

A journalist has been kidnapped in the Haitian capital, the sixth kidnapping affecting the Haitian press this year.

Blondine Tanis, co-host of the “Tribune Matinale” program broadcast on Radio Rénovation FM (107.1FM), fell into the hands of her captors on Friday, July 21, as she was entering her home in the Delmas neighborhood, east of Port-au-Prince, local media confirmed.

A graduate in law and journalism, the respected journalist was also a member of the Radio Télé Zénith team and is the sixth Haitian press worker kidnapped in 2023.

On June 13, Marie Lucie Bonhomme, a journalist with Radio Vision 2000 and owner of the radio and television station Télé Pluriel, was forcibly taken from her residence in the commune of Tabarre, northeast of Port-au-Prince, brought to the base of the “Kraze Baryè” gang and released hours later.

A week later, on June 20, Bonhomme’s husband, the former president of the Provisional Electoral Council, Pierre Louis Opont, was kidnapped by the same gang that has been holding him to this day.

Since then, organizations such as the Association of Haitian Journalists and SOS Journalistes have joined the campaign to release Opont, whom several media outlets identify as co-owner of Télé Pluriel.

In addition to Tanis and Bonhomme, four other journalists were kidnapped and released after their ransoms were paid this year: Robert Dénis, general director of TV Canal Bleu and recently elected president of the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH); Lebrun Saint-Hubert, president and general director of community radio 2000; Jean Thony Lorthé, host of the program “Rafrechi Memwa” on Radio Vision 2000; and Sandra Duvivier, cultural journalist, cameraman and staff member of Telemax, TV channel 5.

Journalists, press workers, and media executives are easy targets for attacks, kidnappings, and murders by gangs that control a large part of the capital of Haiti; a country plunged into a constant climate of insecurity and a political crisis resulting from the absence of elected authorities.

So far this year, three journalists have been murdered in the country, the latest of them Paul Jean Marie, presenter at radio Lumière, who on May 5 was shot dead by criminals who entered his residence in Onaville, in the municipality of Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the capital.

Marie’s murder follows those of Ricot Jean, a journalist with Radio-Télé Évolution Inter in the city of Saint-Marc (north), whose body was found in an open field on April 25, and that of Dumesky Kersaint, editor of Radio Télé Inurep, who was gunned down on April 18 in the town of Carrefour, south of Port-au-Prince.

The most recent incident involved the journalist of the news portal Vant Bèf Info, Pierre Daniel Lamartinière, who last Thursday 20 was wounded by police officers during an anti-government demonstration.

A month ago, the National Board of the Haitian Observatory for the Right and Freedom of the Press (OHDLP) “strongly” condemned the physical aggression and attempted murder perpetrated against the director of Legal Affairs of the entity, Amentha Léonard, by a gang operating in the department of Nippes, 110 kilometers southwest of the Haitian capital.

Meanwhile, the general director of the online portal Clin D’œil Info, Blondson Bachtmy Délien, filed a complaint with the Port-au-Prince prosecutor’s office for persistent threats against him following the publication of information involving a former mayor.

At its mid-year meeting two months ago, the IAPA presented a report stating that journalism in Haiti “continues to be difficult, risky and exposes journalists to precarious and highly vulnerable conditions.”

In addition to the IAPA report, the difficulties in practicing the profession in Haiti were recorded in the “Study on the Development of the Media in Haiti,” published by Unesco this year. The document states that attacks against the press are frequent and that the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. It also denounces that reporters covering political rallies are often verbally or physically attacked by demonstrators who associate them with the opposing side.

*Javier Valdivia is a Miami-based journalist. He is an expert on Haiti. Former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Listín Diario newspaper in the Dominican Republic. A former Chinese state agency Xinhua correspondent in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

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Another journalist was murdered within 48 hours in Haiti, the most dangerous country to practice journalism, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

The body of Ricot Jean, a journalist with Radio-Télé Évolution Inter in Saint-Marc, a town located 73 km north of Port-au-Prince, was found in an open field on Tuesday morning, according to Alcide Volcy, the station’s information director, quoted by the newspaper Le Nouvelliste.

The newspaper said that Jean was abducted along with a friend the night before by four armed men dressed in uniforms of the Departmental Unit for the Maintenance of Order (UDMO), a specialized body of the Haitian police, on the pretext of being arrested.

In addition to being an editor of Évolution, the victim was a well-known cultural entertainer in Saint-Marc and hosted the program “Jamè Dodo” every weekend.

Jean’s murder follows that of Dumesky Kersaint, a journalist with Radio Télé Inurep, who was gunned down last Sunday 18 in Carrefour, south of Port-au-Prince. According to Jacques Antoine Bazile, the station’s executive director, the journalist was killed “while preparing to resume his usual activities.”

Kersaint’s death occurred in the same place where another unidentified person was shot dead. The perpetrator or perpetrators of that crime would have killed Kersaint upon recognizing him due to his profession, according to the news portal Vant Bèf Info.

Both crimes take place at a time when IAPA is holding its mid-year virtual meeting.

The IAPA’s preliminary report on the state of freedom of expression and press freedom in Haiti considers that journalism in this country “continues to be difficult, risky and exposes professionals to precarious conditions and very high vulnerability.”

In the period under evaluation, from October last year to April of this year, four journalists, media executives, or press workers were murdered, four others were kidnapped, and one was wounded.

“These numbers and the expressions and denunciations of unions, social and international organizations reinforced the view that the country is the most dangerous [in which] to practice journalism,” the organization pointed out.

In addition, the difficulties in practicing journalism in Haiti were recorded in the report “Study on the development of the media in Haiti,” published by Unesco on February 10.

The document notes that attacks against the press are frequent, and perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. It also denounces that reporters covering political rallies are often verbally or physically attacked by demonstrators who associate them with the opposing side.

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FIFA appeals reversal of its lifetime ban on federation president

A French investigative journalist who exposed sexual abuse accusations against Yves Jean-Bart, the former Haiti football federation president, is facing a defamation lawsuit by Jean-Bart, Human Rights Watch said today.

The journalist, Romain Molina, documented abuses against underage players in the Haiti football federation under Jean-Bart’s leadership and supported survivors in Haiti and worldwide. The journalist’s articles appeared in the Guardian and in YouTube videos. A hearing in the case is scheduled for March 27, 2023, in Paris.

“Romain Molina’s goal was to speak up for the powerless against the powerful,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “It is deeply troubling to see Haitian football federation leaders using the French courts to try to stifle press freedom and silence survivors and journalists.”

In May 2020, Jean-Bart, then still-president of the Haitian football federation, filed a complaint with a Paris Court, accusing Molina of defamation.

In November 2020, FIFA, the international football governing body, banned Jean-Bart for life following its own investigation into sexual abuse, calling the sexual exploitation under his rule in the federation “inexcusable, a disgrace.”

In February 2023, the Court of Arbitration for Sport wrongly annulled FIFA’s lifetime ban and other sanctions on Jean-Bart. On March 20, FIFA announced it will appeal the decision, due to “very serious procedural and substantive flaws.”

Human Rights Watch independently interviewed more than a dozen male and female survivors and witnesses in the federation and received testimony from victims that the federation president sexually harassed and coerced young players into having sex with him.

The Guardian’s Molina, football players’ union FIFPro, and Human Rights Watch brought to FIFA extensive evidence of systemic human rights abuses in Haitian football, including confiscation of players’ passports – a marker of human trafficking – labor rights abuses, grooming child athletes for sexual exploitation, and threats to kill witnesses and survivors.

Following the Guardian’s reporting, Jean-Bart criticized Molina and other journalists and human rights investigators for exposing his crimes. Journalists and witnesses have not only faced threats of legal action. Human Rights Watch documented that in August 2020, armed men sought out a witness to abuses at the workplace of the witness, whose home was then shot up and ransacked. Human Rights Watch has since documented multiple threats to witnesses, victims of abuse, and family members.

Multiple players told Human Rights Watch of abuses under Jean-Bart’s leadership, including that he fostered a climate of sexual exploitation for young players. At least three other vice-presidents of the Haiti federation have been suspended or banned for life for sexual abuse. One female former national player told Human Rights Watch: “My chance to play abroad depended on whether I slept with the president.”

“Many victims of sexual abuse in Haiti were former child athletes and national youth team members who will live with trauma for the rest of their lives,” Worden said. “FIFA has the responsibility and duty of care to protect athletes and children across its operations, based on its Human Rights Policy and FIFA Guardians program, which makes football leaders responsible for child protection.”

Human Rights Watch has reported on human rights abuses in Haiti, including systemic gender-based violence, for more than three decades. In 2011, Human Rights Watch released a report, “Nobody Remembers Us”: Failure to Protect Women’s and Girls’ Right to Health and Security in Post-Earthquake Haiti, that documented sexual violence and difficulties accessing post-rape care. Human Rights Watch has long advocated for protections for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, and worked directly with Haitian women’s rights and human rights groups to end abuse and ensure justice for survivors.

Human Rights Watch worked with a longtime Haiti partner, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains, RNDDH), which published its own report about alleged sexual abuse at Haiti’s football federation. The RNDDH report on sexual abuse in the Haiti federation found that among other abuses, Yves Jean-Bart had a child with a female athlete.

Human Rights Watch has also interviewed a victim of Haiti’s former sports minister, Evans Lescouflair, who was arrested by Interpol in July 2022, seeking to escape Haitian justice, accused of repeatedly raping an 11-year-old student. Lescouflair was also a top official in Haitian football and was president of a youth football club.

“Impunity for sexual abuse has long remained an unacceptable norm in Haiti’s football federation,” Worden said. “Now Jean-Bart is trying to coopt the French legal system in his pernicious efforts to stifle press freedom and silence survivors of sexual abuse.”

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Eight of their colleagues have been killed this year

Dozens of journalists dressed in white marched on Sunday through Haiti to denounce the murder of eight of their colleagues this year and demand the country’s authorities clarify each case.

The demonstration began in Champ de Mars, in the center of Port-au-Prince, and culminated at a police station in the commune of Delmas, east of the city. On that Sunday, October 30, reporter Romelo Vilsaint died of a bullet in the head while protesting the arrest of another colleague, Robeste Dimanche, who was later released.

“We are here to denounce police brutality against journalists and to ask the police inspectorate general to follow up on the file related to the murder of journalist Romelo Vilsaint,” lawyer Arnel Rémy told the AlterPress agency, one of several local media covering the activity.

The journalists also reminded the authorities of the warning of the Colectivo de Medios en Línea (CMEL), the organizer of the march, that members of the organization would cover no press conference by the police if the institution refuses to inform the public about the results of the investigations.

The CMEL filed a complaint with the Port-au-Prince Prosecutor’s Office against the officers accused of Vilsaint’s murder last week. It was initially reported that a tear gas bomb hit him. Still, Gary Desrosiers, a police spokesman, confirmed to the Associated Press that the reporter died of a “fatal gunshot” during “an unfortunate situation.”

The following day, the police announced the opening of an investigation. The government lamented the death of the journalist, a permanent correspondent in the Haitian capital for Radio Génération 80, based in the town of Port-de-Paix, in the northwest of the country.

Eight journalists were murdered or killed in 2022, victims of violence in Haiti, a country facing a severe security crisis caused by the actions of armed gangs, anti-government protests, and the excessive use of police force.

In addition to Vilsaint, the most recent death was that of journalist Fritz Dorilas. According to local media, he died on November 5 in the Tabarre commune, northeast of Port-au-Prince, when armed individuals fired shots near his home during gang clashes.

However, the online portal Alaminute.Info reported that Dorilas, co-host of the program “The law, the law and justice” on radio Megastar, was forcibly taken from his home located in the Carradeux sector and then executed nearby as the shooting was taking place. The police have not yet confirmed the cause of death.

The deaths of Dorilas and Vilsaint are in addition to those of six other journalists: Tess Garry, Radio Lebon FM, October 24; Frantzsen Charles, FS NEWS, and Tayson Lartigue, Tijèn Jounalis, September 11; Maxihen Lazarre, Rois des Infos, February 23; Wilguens Louissaint, a contributor to various digital media, and Amady John Wesley, radio station Écoute FM, January 6, 2022.

A resolution on Haiti, approved by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) during its 78th General Assembly in Madrid, stressed that the climate of violence and the political, economic, and security crisis in which the country is immersed keep journalists in a situation of defenselessness and high risk.

The IAPA called on the government to guarantee the preservation of freedom of expression and the free and safe exercise of journalism and urged the press organizations of the Americas to express their solidarity and support for journalists and media outlets that continue to carry out their informative mission despite the high-risk circumstances.

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Haitian authorities must immediately investigate a shooting attack on investigative journalist Roberson Alphonse, bring those responsible to justice, and make sure Haiti’s journalists can report safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

Unidentified attackers shot at Alphonse’s car while he drove through the Delmas 40B neighborhood of the capital, Port-au-Prince, on his way to work at the Magik9 radio station early Tuesday morning, according to news reports.

The attack, which left at least 10 bullet holes in Alphonse’s car, wounded the journalist in both arms, but he was able to drive himself to a hospital where he received treatment and remained in stable condition, Frantz Duval, the chief editor of daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste and Magik9, told the Miami Herald.

“I saw him, I spoke to him, he is in shock but not doing too bad,” Duval said.

Alphonse, one of Haiti’s most high-profile investigative journalists, works as news editor for Le Nouvelliste and information director at Magik9, where he hosts the Panel Magik morning program, according to those reports and a statement by the Association of Haitian Journalists.

“We are deeply relieved that Roberson Alphonse is expected to survive and wish him a safe and speedy recovery from the attack that left him far too close to joining the long list of journalists killed in Haiti this year,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. “Authorities must take decisive action to protect the Haitian press so the country’s brave reporters are not forced to risk their lives every time they leave their homes to work.”

Duval told the Miami Herald he realized something was wrong just after 7 a.m. on Tuesday, when staff at the radio station called to tell him Alphonse had not arrived for his show. He later received a call from Alphonse, who was already at the hospital, telling him that he had been attacked.

In a statement, Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Communication called the attack an “assassination attempt” without providing further detail, and expressed solidarity with Alphonse’s family, colleagues, and “the entire corporation hard hit by this unfortunate event, which too often threatens the press sector in Haiti.”

The statement described Alphonse as a “highly respected personality in the Haitian press,” and added, “His rigor, his effort to be impartial and his sense of perfection make him a model for the profession.”

Alphonse’s recent articles for Le Nouvelliste covered topics including national politics, crime and policing, security conditions in Haiti, and the ongoing international response.

In a separate incident, on Monday, authorities in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes found the body of radio commentator Garry Tess, who had been missing since October 18, according to news reports. Tess was a lawyer who also worked as a political analyst and host of the popular radio program “Gran Lakou” on private broadcaster Radio Lébon FM in Les Cayes, according to reports. CPJ is continuing to investigate his death, including whether it was related to his work as a journalist.

Les Cayes Government Commissioner Ronald Richemond announced on Tuesday that the public prosecutor’s office and local police had opened an investigation into Tess’s death and had already questioned several people in connection to the case, according to reports.

CPJ called and emailed the Haitian national police for comment on the cases but received no replies.

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Calls for urgent measures to guarantee freedom of the press and the right to information.

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned Haiti’s numerous violent attacks against journalists and media. The organization urged the authorities to take adequate measures to protect press freedom and the public’s information rights.

Yesterday, demonstrators attacked the state-owned Radio Television Nationale d’Haiti headquarters in Delmas, Port-au-Prince. According to local media, they set fire to three vehicles, threw stones, and stole equipment from the station. The police dispersed the crowd and prevented the complete looting of the facilities.

IAPA President Jorge Canahuati condemned the violence, “especially these latest episodes and the murders of several journalists, which point to the great insecurity and lack of protection in which communicators in this country carry out their work.” Canahuati, CEO of Grupo Opsa of Honduras, urged the authorities to “take vigorous measures to protect freedom of the press and the right of citizens to be informed.”

Carlos Jornet, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, added: “The difficult environment in which our Haitian colleagues work deserves our full attention and solidarity. They are victims of violent demonstrators, gangs and illegal groups, and economic precariousness.”

Jornet, the editor of the newspaper La Voz del Interior of Argentina, pointed out that, “Haitian journalism is under serious threat this year, marked by murders, intimidation, kidnappings, and attacks on the media.”

On September 13, Radio Model FM was also attacked, resulting in the wounding of a station technician and considerable material damage. Among other violent incidents in recent days, on September 11, journalists Frantzsen Charles of FS News, and Tayson Lartigue of Tijèn Jounalis, were killed while covering clashes between rival gangs in Cité Soleil. These cases follow those of John Wesley Amady of Écoute FM, Wilguens Louissaint, a digital media contributor, killed on January 6, and photojournalist Maxihen Lazarre of Rois des Infos on February 23.

Last week three reporters from Radio Télé Zenith were wounded: Yvenson Joinvil and Youly Destiné, by rubber bullets, and Robest Dimanche, attacked by police officers. A projectile also injured journalist Luly Ménard, apparently accidentally, while she was observing a protest in the city of Cap-Haïtien from her home.

On July 17, armed individuals kidnapped AlterPresse journalist Edner Décime in the Delmas neighborhood. His captors released him after 20 days in captivity after demanding a ransom.

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Haitian authorities must take decisive action to investigate a brutal attack that left two reporters dead, guarantee that the journalists’ bodies are returned to their families, and ensure the Haitian press can work safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday.

Frantzsen Charles and Tayson Lartigue were shot and killed when a group of journalists was attacked while reporting on rising gang violence in the Cité Soleil neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, at around 3 p.m. on Sunday, September 11, according to news reports and Jacques Desrosiers, secretary-general of the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), a local trade group, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app. The bodies of the journalists have not been recovered, according to those reports.

Charles was a reporter for online news outlet FS News Haiti, according to an obituary the outlet published, and Lartigue was the founder of Tijén Jounalis, which covered local and breaking news on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, according to those reports and CPJ’s review of the outlet’s social media accounts.

“Frantzsen Charles and Tayson Lartigue are the latest names added to this year’s tragic tally of journalists killed while on assignment in Haiti,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick. “Haitian authorities cannot continue standing idly by as the country’s journalists risk — and lose — their lives to keep their fellow citizens informed. Authorities must ensure Charles and Lartigue’s bodies are returned to their loved ones and that Haitian journalists can do their jobs safely.”

Charles and Lartigue were among a group of seven journalists who went to Cité Soleil to report on ongoing gang violence in the neighborhood and interview the family of a 17-year-old resident killed the day before, according to Desrosiers and Haitian news website AyiboPost, which interviewed witnesses in Cité Soleil. The group had finished their interviews and were leaving the neighborhood, with Charles and Lartigue riding on the motorbike in the lead, when they were ambushed and shot, according to those sources.

The other five journalists were able to flee to safety, where they attempted to call Charles and Lartigue and return for them, according to news reports. One of the other journalists in the group told AyiboPost that the attackers seized Charles and Lartigue’s motorbike and reporting equipment.

Rival armed groups have been engaged in violent confrontations in Cité Soleil for several weeks, Desrosiers told CPJ.

Haitian National Police spokesperson Garry Desrosiers told Spanish news agency EFE that police were “aware that five of the journalists ‘exited with difficulty’ from the location” and that they “had information” that Charles and Lartigue had been killed. He urged journalists to “be careful” when reporting in neighborhoods like Cité Soleil.

CPJ reached out to the Haitian National Police for comment via the contact form on their website but did not immediately receive a response.

Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry posted a series of tweets about the case to his official Twitter account on Monday.

“We are deeply shocked by the news of the assassination of two young journalists: Tayson Latigue and Frantzsen Charles, yesterday Sunday, in Cité-Soleil, in the exercise of their profession. We strongly condemn this barbaric act, while sending our heartfelt thoughts to the families of the victims and their colleagues,” Henry wrote.

“Armed conflicts between rival gangs make it difficult for journalists to work in Haiti,” AJH’s Desrosiers told CPJ. “This is the second time in the year 2022 that journalists have been murdered while working in the field.”

In January, suspected gang members shot and killed two Haitian journalists, Wilguens Louis-Saint and John Wesley Amady, while they were reporting on the lack of security in a gang-disputed area in Port-au-Prince, as CPJ documented at the time.

In February, Haitian National Police officers opened fire on a protest by textile workers demanding a higher minimum wage in Port-au-Prince, killing broadcast reporter Maximilien Lazard and injuring two other journalists.

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