A journalist was kidnapped in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, when she was entering her home and her capture constitutes the sixth kidnapping so far this year, the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) reported Monday.
Blondine Tanis, from the “Tribune Matinale” program on Radio Rénovation FM (107.1FM), was kidnapped last Friday when she entered her house in the Delmas neighborhood, east of Port-au-Prince, as confirmed by local media.
Tanis is a “respected communicator”, who for a season was a member of the Radio Télé Zénith team, and his capture marks the sixth kidnapping of the year that has been recorded in the Caribbean country.
On June 13, Marie Lucie Bonhomme, a journalist for Radio Vision 2000 and owner of the radio and television station Télé Pluriel, was forcibly taken from her residence in Tabarre, northeast of Port-au-Prince, and taken to the base of the “Kraze Baryè” gang, where she was released hours later.
A week later, on June 20, Pierre Louis Opont, Bonhomme’s husband and former president of the Provisional Electoral Council, was kidnapped by the same gang and is still being held to this day.
Organizations such as the Association of Haitian Journalists and SOS Journalistes have called for the release of Opont, identified as the co-owner of Télé Pluriel.
In so far this year, four other communicators have been kidnapped and released after payment of a ransom.
They are: Robert Dénis, general director of TV Canal Bleu and recently elected president of the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH); Lebrun Saint-Hubert, President and CEO of Community Radio 2000; Jean Thony Lorthé, presenter on Radio Vision 2000, and Sandra Duvivier, journalist for Telemax, TV channel 5.
“Journalists, press workers and media executives are easy targets for attacks, kidnappings and murders by gangs that control a large part of the capital of Haiti, a country mired in a constant climate of insecurity and a political crisis derived from the absence of elected authorities,” said journalist Javier Valdivia, in a report for IAPA.
The hemispheric entity, based in Miami (USA), recalled that throughout 2023 three journalists have been assassinated in Haiti, The last of them was Paul Jean Marie, a presenter on Lumière radio, who was killed on May 5 by criminals who entered his residence in the municipality of Croix-des-Bouquets, east of the capital.
Previously, on April 25, the lifeless body of Ricot Jean, a journalist for Radio-Télé Évolution Inter in the city of Saint-Marc (north), was found in a field, and a week earlier Dumesky Kersaint, editor of Radio Télé Inurep, was shot to death in the municipality of Carrefour, south of Port-au-Prince.
The IAPA recalled that last Thursday the journalist Pierre Daniel Lamartinièrefrom the news portal Vant Bèf Info, was injured by police officers during a demonstration against the government.
Likewise, a month ago the National Board of the Haitian Observatory for Law and Press Freedom (OHDLP) condemned the physical assault and attempted murder against its director of Legal Affairs, Amentha Léonard.
The IAPA added that the journalist Blondson Bachtmy Délien filed a complaint with the Port-au-Prince prosecutor’s office for persistent threats against him after the publication of information involving a former mayor.
Practicing journalism in Haiti “continues to be difficult, risky and exposes trade professionals to precarious conditions and extremely high vulnerability”pointed out the IAPA in a report presented at its half-year meeting held two months ago.
The organization also alludes to the “Study on the development of the media in Haiti”, published by Unesco this year and which states that in this country attacks against the press are frequent and that their perpetrators are rarely brought to justice.
The SIP is a non-profit entity dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida (United States).