Two journalists shot dead in Haiti

Two journalists were shot and killed on Sunday in Cité Soleil, Haiti, and unconfirmed reports are that the killers subsequently set their bodies on fire. 

Frantzsen Charles, who worked for FS News, and Tayson Lartigue, owner of online media, Ti Jenn Jounalis, were among seven reporters covering ongoing gang violence when the two were executed.

Cité Soleil is known to be an extremely improvised area in Port-au-Prince where gangs are constantly battling one another.

A report from the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), quoted Prime Minister of Haiti, Dr. Ariel Henry as expressing “shock” at the murder of the journalists. 

“I am deeply shocked by the news of the assassination of two young journalists: Tayson Lartigue and Frantzsen Charles, 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,” Prime Minister Henry said in his statement.

His Communications Minister, Emmelie Prophète Milcé, said that “any attack on journalism is an attack on freedom of expression” as she extended her condolences to the families of the journalists.

Media reports said they were shot and killed by snipers while returning from a report in the Brooklyn neighbourhood on a motorcycle.

Their bodies were reportedly taken away by the killers, who also burned their bodies.

Spokesperson for the National Police of Haiti (PNH), Inspector Garry Desrosiers, confirmed that the journalists were murdered but could not confirm that the bodies had been burnt.

Desrosiers is encouraging journalists to be very careful when going to neighbourhoods like Cité Soleil, where armed clashes are a daily occurrence. (SNR/CMC) 

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