Press-freedom group calls on Haitian authorities to locate kidnapped journalists
An international organization that monitors and defends press freedoms across the Americas is calling on Haitian authorities to take “all necessary measures” to locate two journalists who have been missing for two weeks, and to clarify the circumstances of their abduction “without delay.”
The kidnapped journalists, Junior Célestin of Radio Télévision Mégastar and Osnel Espérance of Radio Uni FM, were abducted on March 13 while reporting in the capital, according to a post on X by Radio UN FM. The duo “were captured by armed men from Viv Ansanm in Port-au-Prince,” the station said. Viv Ansanm is a gang coalition that controls most of Port-au-Prince and the abductions took place near downtown Port-au-Prince.
Relatives have been seeking information about their whereabouts and demanded their immediate release.
The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, which is part of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the Organization of American States, also said it also strongly condems an armed attack against well-known Haitian media personality and veteran journalist, Marvel Dandin, director of Radio Télé Kiskeya and carried out the previous day.
“The office... calls on national authorities to comply with their international obligations to prevent violence, protect journalists, and investigate, prosecute and hold those responsible accountable, in accordance with Inter-American standards on freedom of expression,” the rapporteur’s office said.
“These events are taking place amid a severe security crisis and a pattern of systematic violence against the press in Haiti,” it added.
As gangs continue to expand and consolidate territorial control, journalists remain in growing danger, according to the commission and other press freedom groups. Kidnappings and short-term enforced disappearances have become established tactics used to intimidate, extort and silence members of the press, the commission noted in its report, “Situation of Press Freedom in Haiti.”
Between 2018 and 2025, the rapporteur’s office documented at least 17 kidnappings, two enforced disappearances, 13 armed attacks against journalists and six attacks on media outlets, placing more than 41 media professionals at risk.
The attacks, which have forced journalists to flee Haiti, have underscored the dangers journalists face in a country where 1.45 million people have been forced to flee their homes and at least 5,500 Haitian were killed between March 2025 and January 2026 due to gang violence, according to the United Nations.
“They kill, kidnap, beat and burn the bodies of anyone who gets in their way,” Nada Al-Nashif, U.N. deputy human right commissioner, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday. “This includes people who resist extortion and those they perceive as collaborating with the police, gang members, destroy and ransack property and exert control over the population by starving and extorting them.”
The office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression said the violence by Haiti’s armed groups “not only endanger the lives and safety of journalists and deepen a climate of censorship, but also sustain criminal economies, such as arms trafficking and facilitate the commission of further crimes.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York has also urged Haitian authorities to “find and ensure the safe return” of the two missing journalists.
