(Port-au-Prince) Two Haitian journalists working for online media were shot and killed on Sunday while reporting in Port-au-Prince, officials confirmed on Tuesday, with the Haitian capital recording an escalation in violence against the press.
Posted at 1:27 p.m.
Tayson Latigue and Frantzsen Charles were gunned down in Cité Soleil, one of the country’s largest slums, plagued by clashes by armed gangs for months.
“They were part of a group of seven journalists who had gone to the area to report on the armed clashes which notably caused the death of a teenager, Christelle Delva, last Saturday”, told the AFP journalist Robest Dimanche, spokesperson for the Online Media Collective.
“The two journalists were killed while returning from the neighborhood where the parents of the young victim live. After their death, the bandits calcined their corpses”, he added, relaying the testimonies of the surviving journalists.
Tayson Latigue worked for the online media “Ti Jenn jounalis” which he founded. Frantzsen Charles worked for the online media “FS News Haiti”, which announced the death of its journalist on its Facebook page.
“We announce with great sorrow the death of our journalist and reporter Frantzsen Charles and another colleague. They were killed by bandits during a report in Cité Soleil. We demand justice for our colleague,” it read.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was “deeply shocked” by the murder of the two journalists. “We strongly condemn this barbaric act,” he tweeted on Monday evening.