Families of 2 journalists kidnapped in gang-controlled area of Haiti plead for details
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The families of two Haitian journalists who were reported kidnapped last week pleaded Monday for information about them, with many fearing that gangs had killed them.
Junior Célestin of Radio Television Megastar and Osnel Espérance of Radio Uni FM were reporting in downtown Port-au-Prince on Friday when they were taken, according to Radio Uni FM.
The area is largely controlled by a powerful gang coalition known as Viv Ansanm, which the United States has designated as a foreign terrorist organization. Gangs control an estimated 90% of Haiti’s capital as well as swaths of land in the country’s central region.
Rosemanie Erneste, Espérance’s wife, told reporters she hasn’t heard from him since Friday.
“I am asking, if he is dead, don’t hide it from me,” she said, and began to cry. “If he is alive, let me know.”
She called on the government to act.
“There are a lot of victims,” she said of gang violence. “It’s time for this to end.”
She also had a message for Viv Ansanm: “I am asking for grace. Let him go, please.”
Jocelyn Perez, the executive director of Radio Uni FM, joined the families in requesting information about the journalists in a broadcast Monday.
“We need to know if you are alive,” she said. “If they are alive, what are the steps we should be taking?”
Perez also called on international human rights organizations to help, adding: “Journalists are not actors in the conflict, but messengers serving the population.”
William O’Neill, the U.N. expert on human rights in Haiti, told reporters Monday that journalists and human rights defenders “are under great risk.” O’Neill, who visited Haiti earlier this month, said human rights, journalists’ groups and others are trying to get information about the two journalists who were kidnapped.
At least nine journalists in Haiti were killed in 2022, the deadliest year for Haitian journalism in recent history.
___
Associated Press reporter Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.