SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO (AP) – A well-known Haitian journalist survived an assassination attempt on Tuesday that left his car riddled with bullets in the capital of Port-au-Prince, officials said.
Roberson Alphonse, who works at the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste and at radio station Magik9, is hospitalised but is expected to recover, according to Chief Editor for both media Frantz Duval. He said Alphonse has undergone two operations so far.
Also on Tuesday, authorities found the body of another journalist who had been missing for several days. Garry Tess used to host a political talk show in the southern city of Les Cayes, according to the government’s Office of Citizen Protection, which said it was extremely worried about the security of journalists in Haiti and urged they be protected.
No one has been arrested in either case, although journalists in Haiti have long been the target of warring gangs who have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Duval thanked an unidentified person he said rescued Alphonse and applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding before medical help arrived.
Duval noted the car had more than 10 bullet holes, adding that neither Alphonse nor any of his colleagues were available for comment.
“Health is the absolute priority,” he wrote. “Thank you to everyone for your understanding.”
Haiti’s Ministry of Culture and Communication said it learned “with horror the news of the assassination attempt” that occurred in the Delmas neighbourhood as Alphonse headed to the radio station for work. “His rigour, his effort to be impartial, and his sense of perfection make him a model for the profession,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the president of Haiti’s Senate, Joseph Lambert, demanded a judicial investigation.