The Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the “brutal murder” of two Haitian reporters attributed to armed gangs in Port-au-Prince, an incident that occurred on Thursday when both were covering a clash between gangs in the Haitian capital.
The organization said in a statement that the shooting deaths of Wilguens Louissaint and Amady John Wesley joins the “macabre account” of journalists murdered in America in 2022.
The president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati Larach, regretted the event and condemned the murder saying that “we started the year with a horrendous event that mourns journalism, which confirms that chaos and violence reign in Haiti after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July last year.”
Journalists Louissaint and Wesley They were shot this Thursday when they were covering a clash between gangs in the Haitian capital. The Écoute FM radio station, where Wesley worked, assured that the reporter was murdered “savagely”, indicates the IAPA. The station is headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and it suspended its coverage in the Caribbean country as a result of this crime.
For his part, Louissaint He was a collaborator in different digital media from Port au Prince. Another reporter, Wilmann Vil, managed to escape the shooting unscathed, the statement said. “Everything indicates that it was a deliberate attack against journalists,” said the president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet.
The also journalistic director of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, from Córdoba, added that “the only way to stop the violence and impunity surrounding crimes against journalists is through efficient investigations and administration of justice. “
With Louissant and Wesley There are three journalists killed in Haiti in seven months. According to data from the IAPA, which is based in Miami, Florida (USA), reporter Diego Charles was assassinated last June, along with an opposition political activist and others.
The authorities have not yet identified those responsible, the organization points out. In the case of the murder of Louissaint and Wesley, the IAPA demanded a swift investigation from the Haitian authorities and the “immediate capture and prosecution” of those responsible.
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