More than 90 Haitian journalists and Reporters Without Borders call on the international community and Haiti’s new Transitional Presidential Council to give the right to information a central place in the search for a solution to the crisis that has been intensifying in Haiti in recent months.
As the right to information is an essential resource, Haiti’s journalists and news media must be protected so that the country does not become an information desert, RSF and Haitian journalists say in a joint appeal issued on 16 April.
Media personnel have been directly impacted by both an unprecedented wave of gang violence and a social, economic and political crisis that has been growing since last December.
Six Haitian journalists have been killed in connection with their work since 2022. Reporters are constantly exposed to threats, attacks or abduction. The mounting violence is carried out with complete impunity in the absence of the rule of law. As criminal gangs extend their control over the capital, Port-au-Prince, journalists are restricted to a few neighborhoods where they can still work, albeit not without risks. Many have fled the country.
Most of the journalists who have signed the appeal to the international community and the Transitional Presidential Council are based in Port-au-Prince or adjoining municipalities. Some work for national media outlets such as Le Nouvelliste, Haïti24 and AlterPresse.
Others are freelancers. They work for print media, online media, TV and radio. Many of them belong to the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH). Together, and with RSF, they are sounding the alarm
Artur Romeu
Director of RSF’s Latin America bureau