The Association of Haitian Journalists and international press freedom organizations documented 2024 as the worst year on record for press freedom in Haiti, with multiple journalists killed, dozens threatened or attacked, and the effective collapse of reporting capacity in large areas of the country under gang control. The deterioration of press freedom in Haiti was accelerating in direct proportion to the expansion of gang territorial control, as criminal networks that operated on impunity specifically targeted the journalism that documented their activities.
The journalists killed in 2024 were not randomly caught in violence but specifically targeted for their work. Reporters who had covered gang activities, documented human rights violations, or investigated corruption faced threats that escalated to fatal attacks when they continued their work despite warnings. The pattern pointed to organized efforts to silence specific journalists rather than incidental journalist casualties in a violent environment.
In gang-controlled areas of Port-au-Prince, journalism had effectively ceased. Community members with phones who might have shared information from affected neighborhoods increasingly refrained from doing so out of fear of being identified as sources. The information vacuum in gang-controlled territory was itself a form of harm — communities cut off from outside visibility were more vulnerable to violence that went undocumented and therefore unaddressed.
Press freedom organizations called for specific measures to protect Haitian journalists, including safe houses, legal support, digital security training, and international advocacy for accountability when journalists were killed or threatened. They emphasized that protecting press freedom was not just a professional matter for journalists but a democratic necessity — without journalists able to report safely, the information that citizens needed to hold power accountable simply would not exist.