Wednesday in a note, Jean Roudy Aly the new Minister of Justice and Public Security accuses the media and journalists to be the spokesman accomplices of criminals, reminding them of their role in the fight against crime. Affirming that a correspondence to this effect, was sent to the two main media associations and that of journalists [the National Association of Haitian Media (ANMH), the Association of Independent Media of Haiti (AMIH) and the Federation of Haitian Press to solicit their full and complete collaboration in efforts to curb some abuses.

In his note, Minister Aly states "[...] most media and journalists have fun almost daily to receive in the free tribune broadcasts of notorious bandits, actively sought by the police. What is worse, these bandits admit their crimes, while terrorizing the population, take the malicious pleasure to make threats in the press to the police. In doing so, consciously or unconsciously, these media professionals are complicit in these faithless and lawless individuals who sow grief among Haitian families.

The Government Commissioners at the Courts of First Instance of the various jurisdictions of the country, as prosecutors, they have been instructed to investigate both the perpetrators and the accomplices of these criminal acts.

Is this why, in the framework of a more responsible exercise of the freedom of the press, the MJSP solicits the collaboration of all the journalists, by not tending their microphones to these individuals who do not cease to threaten the very stability of the State."

A note that has already provoked the first reactions.

Frantz Duval, the President of the ANMH, having learned this statement in the media, hopes that it is only "an excess of language on the part of the Minister" and is waiting to officially receive the letter from the Ministry before make a statement on the official position of his Association.

Georges Venel Remarais, the President of the AMIH also promises an official reaction as soon as he receives the letter from the Minister. However, he believes that Minister Aly "went quickly to work", making "an amalgam" while only a small part of the media broadcast this kind of broadcast

Ady Jean Gardy, former Minister of Communication and President of the Federation of the Haitian Press, denounces the position of the Minister and maintains that the journalists do only their work by allowing the population and the authorities to take knowledge of the public confession of the people concerned. He sees Minister Aly's intervention as a serious threat to the freedom of the press. Nevertheless, he urges journalists to avoid being complacent with criminals and to be cautious about wrongdoing.

HL/ PI/ HaitiLibre