A court in the southeastern Haitian town of Jacmel has convicted police officer Bastien Novembre for assaulting Radio Express reporter Fritzer Philogène and ordered him to pay Philogène 100,000 gourdes (approx US$2,500) in damages. If Novembre, a member of the elite Departmental Unit for Maintaining Order (UDMO), fails to pay he could go to prison for one year. A report by his superiors also recommended disciplinary measures on December 16, Reporters sans Frontières has reported.
On October 29, Novembre attacked Philogène after the journalist surprised him near the Jacmel police station beating a suspect. The secretary-general of the Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), Jacques Desrosiers, who was also a plaintiff in the case, described the verdict as a "major precedent" in the fight against impunity for physical attacks on journalists.
RSF said, "We regard the sentence imposed on Novembre as fair and proportionate to the offence committed. It should send a major signal to those who abuse their authority in their relations with journalists."
