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Author: Pierre Fillol Saint-Fleur
P-au-P, July 18, 2024 (AlterPresse) — The Haitian Journalists Association (Ajh) and the Haitian Online Media Association (Ahml) call on journalists to take responsibility in the police operation against local armed gangs, speaking on the AlterPresse/AlterRadio platform.
These positions were expressed after the Prime Minister intervened Garry Conille, in his message to the nation on the evening of July 17, 2024, asked journalists, “especially those from social media”, to avoid spreading strategic information that could serve armed banditsenabling them to identify national police officers and soldiers and receive support as part of the Kenyan police deployment Multinational Security Support Mission (Mmas) During the field intervention in Haiti.
“At the Ajh level, we were surprised to see that journalists risked their lives trying to cover police operations in downtown Port-au-Prince at noon on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Jacques Desrosiers, secretary general of the Haitian Journalists Association (Ajh), said in an interview with AlterPresse/AlterRadio,
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The Ministry of Justice considered Gary Cornell’s warning (“to avoid reporting on police positions and tactics, and the evolution of police operations against armed gangs”) to be a call for cooperation and responsibility on the part of journalists in the performance of their professional duties in the field.
On the other hand, the national police should delineate and establish security perimeters, prohibiting anyone, including journalists, from entering the “closed” space for operations, the Ministry of Justice suggested.
This is a view shared by Godson Lubrun, president of the Haitian Online Media Association (Ahml), and AlterPresse/AlterRadio.
“Journalists working in the field must protect their lives. They must behave responsibly and professionally to avoid becoming victims while covering action scenes between police and armed gangsters,” Ahml stressed.
The Haitian Online Media Association strongly advises “journalists, and they are not well equipped to carry out such operations, not to risk their lives to go out in the field to collect information. Journalists are here to report the facts. Therefore, everyone needs to protect themselves from becoming or becoming someone new.”
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Call for structural regulation of Haitian media
The Haitian Journalists Association stressed that freedom of the press and journalistic activity were guaranteed by the Constitution of 29 March 1987 and that it was necessary to achieve structural reform of the Haitian press.
Jacques Desrosiers, secretary general of the Supreme Judicial Council, called for “a meeting of the associations of journalists and media managers to develop a strategy that would allow all parties, the media and journalists, and the law enforcement agencies to carry out their respective functions without interfering with the other.”
“It is necessary for the State to take all measures to regulate the operation of the Haitian media. The regulation concerns the definition of the legal framework, the identification and registration of new online media, and in particular recommends the Haitian Online Media Association.
The way Haiti’s digital ecosystem develops must be carefully managed to avoid any abuse and allow the media and journalists to play their proper role, said Ahml President Godson Lubrun. (ppsf RC 18 April 2024 at 1:54 pm)
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