The National Police of Haiti said that it has been given the go-ahead to investigate the killing of a journalist who, according to eyewitnesses, was killed after police allegedly opened fire on a gathering of journalists while simultaneously using tear gas.
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Romelson Vilsaint’s family and coworkers received condolences from Police Chief Frantz Elbé late on Sunday. Elbé also said that cops had to use tear gas to disperse a “hostile crowd” that had been storming a police station in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.
According to witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press, journalists from radio station Génération 80, including Vilsaint, had assembled at a police station in Delmas to call for the release of Robest Dimanche, a colleague who had been arrested on Sunday while reporting a demonstration. Dimanche is employed at a nearby Radio Tele Zenith.
The Association of Haitian Journalists, which denounced what it called “anti-democratic acts of repression,” also said that police had assaulted many journalists and taken their tools and other property.
“The safety of media and free movement of journalists are essential for the full and complete enjoyment of freedom of the press, freedom of thought, freedom of expression and the right to information that make up democracy,” it stated.
