Gunmen Kill Haiti Radio Journalist

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti –– Two gunmen shot and killed Haiti's most prominent radio journalist as he pulled into the courtyard of his radio station for a Monday morning newscast. Jean Dominique, who was in his 60s, died at the Haitian Community Hospital in suburban Petionville, where Radio Haiti Inter in located. A station worker also was killed in the attack, said Radio Haiti journalist Assad Volcy. There were no immediate arrests. The attack came amid a wave of insecurity and scattered violence last week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, as Haitian officials try to organize elections to install a new parliament. No date has been set.

In the 1970s, Dominique spearheaded a free-speech movement against the dictatorial regime of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Duvalier shut his station down in 1980, and Dominique fled into exile. He returned after a popular uprising toppled Duvalier in 1986.  Dominique's station was closed down again in 1991 when the army  ousted then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whom Dominique followed into exile in the United States. A U.S.-led intervention restored democracy and Aristide to power in 1994. Dominique was a close ally of Aristide and his successor, President Rene Preval. The acid-tongued Dominique had often received death threats. His  enemies ranged from far-right partisans of the 1991 army coup to  some far-left supporters of Aristide's fragmented populist movement. 

"The only weapon I have is my journalist's profession, my microphone, and my unshakable faith as a militant for change, veritable change," Dominique said in an Oct. 17 radio editorial.