In Haiti, the press is again in mourning. In early January, two Haitian journalists were murdered by a gang in the capital. Yesterday Wednesday, a Haitian journalist was killed while covering a workers’ demonstration that brought together thousands of people in Port-au-Prince. Witnesses accuse the police of being responsible for the shootings.
With our correspondent in Port-au-Prince, Amelie Baron
Maxihen Lazzare was a photojournalist for the media “King of the News”. As a burst of gunfire echoed down the main avenue where the workers’ demonstration was taking place, he was fatally shot and two other media professionals were shot and wounded.
Witnesses accuse police officers of being behind the shooting, carried out from a vehicle which apparently circulated without a license plate. Jacques Sampeur is the president of the national association of Haitian media and he deplores this new attack on the press.
” We are faced with a very serious, very dangerous vagueness since sometimes we are victims of banditry like everyone else, and sometimes the press is also the victim of the regular army, of the regular police. We are practically out of breath. We condemn every day. There are police slippages, we have the impression that we no longer respect the press and that is dangerous and it is deplorable. »
Faced with the accusations of certain witnesses, the police announced that an investigation had been opened with the general inspectorate of the PNH, in addition to that opened by the judicial police.