Jacques Roche

Press conditions improved slightly during a year of relative political stability. A decline in gang violence in the capital, Port-au-Prince, allowed reporters to make a cautious return to the city's streets. And, with the strong support of President René Préval, an independent committee was created in August to monitor stalled investigations into a series of journalist murders this decade.

Préval pledges justice in murders of Haitian journalists

New York, September 27, 2007—Haitian President René Préval has pledged support for an independent committee evaluating stalled investigations into a series of unsolved journalist murders this decade and said that all political obstacles to justice have now been removed.   

 UPDATE:  August 30, 2007
Original case: July 14, 2005

Jacques Roche, Le Matin
KILLED—UNCONFIRMED

On August 30, Port-au-Prince judge Jean Claude Rigeur sentenced Alby Joseph and Chéry Beaubrun, members of the local Solino gang, to life in prison for the 2005 kidnapping and murder of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, reported the Haitian press.

Attacks on Haiti’s press dropped significantly, even as its streets were ravaged by violence—but journalists said the decline was attributable to widespread self-censorship. Haiti’s media continued to operate in a polarized environment, which both skewed and limited coverage of the government and street gangs.

René Préval, an agronomist who served as president of Haiti between 1996 and 2001, became the first democratically elected leader since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February 2004. Despite Préval’s appeals for peace, scores of people were kidnapped at gunpoint on the streets of Port-au-Prince. More than 100 abductions were reported in the first six months of the year alone, The Miami Herald reported.

Updated: April 11, 2006
Original case: July 14, 2005

Jacques Roche, Le Matin
KILLED—UNCONFIRMED

Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste was granted a temporary release from prison on January 30 to receive medical treatment for leukemia. He was accused of involvement in the 2005 murder of Jacques Roche, a well-known Haitian journalist.

HAITI

Amid civil unrest, political turmoil, and spiraling violence, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere remained a very dangerous place for journalists. The fall of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 created a political vacuum; street gangs, drug traffickers, corrupt police, ex-soldiers from the disbanded military, and the ousted leader's supporters sought violently to fill it. Journalists found themselves targeted from several directions.

JULY 14, 2005
Posted: September 2, 2005

Jacques Roche, Le Matin
KILLED--UNCONFIRMED

Roche, cultural editor with the Port-au-Prince-based daily Le Matin who was kidnapped on July 10, was found dead four days later in a slum in Haiti's capital. His body was handcuffed, riddled with bullets, and mutilated, according to international press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the murder to determine whether it was related to Roche's work..

New York, July 14, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of Haitian journalist Jacques Roche, whose body was found today in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Roche, cultural editor with the daily Le Matin, was kidnapped on Sunday, according to international press reports.

Roche, who also hosted a local television station show, was taken from his car in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Nazon, the Haitian press reported. His captors demanded US$250,000 in ransom, The Associated Press said.