One of Haiti's best known journalists, Joseph Guyler C Delva, has been sentenced to a month in prison by a Port-au-Prince criminal court for defaming a senator, Rudolph Boulos, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported. Delva is still free pending the outcome of an appeal. The order was passed on December 10.
Boulos sued Delva after he said Boulos had a US passport. This would preclude him from being a senator since the 1987 constitution bans dual nationality.
The head of the Independent Commission for Assisting Investigations into Murders of Journalists (CIAPEAJ), Delva has also on several occasions accused Boulos of blocking the investigation into the April 2000 murder of Radio Haïti Inter director Jean Dominique.
"It is not our job to say whether or not Delva's allegations were defamatory, but we condemn the imposition of prison sentences for defamation and we hope this sentence will be quashed on appeal," RSF said.
