Miami, September 11, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Haitian authorities to end their harassment of Guy Delva, leader of Haitian press freedom group SOS Journalistes protection initiative, and to ensure the journalist can work safely without fear of threats.

Delva told CPJ that he has been threatened at least two times in the street by unidentified men, and he believes the police intend to arrest him after he was told that the Haitian government complained about his advocacy work on behalf of independent radio stations Radio Caraibes and Radio Mega. Delva said he has gone into hiding and may be forced to leave the country.

“Guy Delva, a highly respected veteran journalist and the founder and leader of SOS Journalistes, a trusted defender of press freedom, should not be forced to live in fear of doing his job,” said CPJ U.S., Canada and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “The Haitian government should focus on restoring order to the country rather than stoking false and dangerous narratives about its press corps and media support groups.”

The government has generally allowed journalists to do their jobs without fear of retaliation, while pressuring some media that it sees as too soft on the gangs, such as Radio Mega and Radio Caraibes. “They accuse me of tarnishing the government’s reputation by defending them,” said Delva.

In one incident, Delva told CPJ that he was leaving a radio station after an interview in the capital city of Port-Au-Prince when he said he was approached by a man who told him, “If you don’t stop you will get what you are looking for.”

Deputy police spokesman Lionel Lazarre responded “no comment” via text when contacted by CPJ about the police investigation against Delva.

Haiti’s government has been besieged by a coalition of violent armed gangs for the last 18 months who have laid waste to large parts of Port-Au-Prince and central Haiti, kidnapping, killing, wounding and displacing an estimated 1.3 million people.

In recent years, the unrest in Haiti has made it one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Haiti topped CPJ’s 2024 Global Impunity Index, which ranks nations where journalists’ killers are most likely to go free.