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Revered radio journalist Liliane Pierre Paul hailing from the Caribbean country Haiti died on Monday, July 31, at her Port-Au-Prince home from a heart attack. She was 70 years old at the time of her demise.
The news of her death was first announced on air by Radio Kiskeya, which the late esteemed journalist co-founded and worked at. In a statement to the Miami Herald, Liliane’s son Harold Isaac said:
“My mother lived her life with dignity, integrity, and solidarity to the Haitian people and its struggle for democracy, in a career that spanned nearly 50 years.”
As per Isaac’s statement to the Haitian Times, Liliane Pierre Paul was preparing to go out for work in her residence in the hills above Port-Au-Prince when she suffered a fatal heart attack. She was supposed to host her popular daily radio show at 4 pm, focused on current affairs and news, but instead succumbed to myocardial infarction.
Liliana Pierre Paul was one of the pioneers of Haiti’s freedom of the press and democracy movement and is well-known for being an award-winning journalist, radio host, and human rights activist.
Her colleague and close friend Michele Montas (a retired Haitian journalist) also paid her tributes in a statement to Miami Herald.
“Liliane will always be remembered for her courage, her determination, her profound beliefs in the democratic ideals so many died for,” she said.
Tributes pour in after Liliane Pierre Paul’s demise
As soon as the news of Liliane Pierre Paul’s death was announced, her friends and colleagues came together to pay their tributes. Michele Montas, a spokesperson for former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a Haitian journalist, who was a dear friend of the deceased, told the Miami Herald:
“Death will not silence that voice.”
Likewise, Dr. Laurinus Pierre, a Miami-based physician and Haitian rights advocate, told the news outlet that Liliane’s death news came as a shock to him. Her longtime friend also said:
“It’s a big loss for the country. She really devoted her life to seeing change in the country.”
Lately, she was protesting against Pierre-Louis Opont’s abduction by a gang and demanding his release. Opont was a TV station owner and former heard of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council and was kidnapped in late May.
His wife, Marie Lucie Bonhomme, another prominent radio journalist, revealed to the Miami Herald that she was “grieving” the loss of her longtime close friend. She also called Pierre Paul the champion of Haitian Creole and for making it “the language of the country.”
Pierre Paul is survived by son Isaac Harold and his wife Gessika, as well as daughter Djuly and grandkids Ryan, Jayden, and Rebecca. Her husband, Anthony Barbier, who passed away in 2021, was the General-Secretary of Haiti’s National Palace.
Liliane Pierre Paul began her career as a reporter in the 1970s
Known for being the bold and outspoken champion of democracy and freedom of speech and expression, Liliane protested against all kinds of social injustice until she breathed her last. She spoke against Haitian political turmoil and corruption and even exposed the alleged despotic rule of the military and even the President.
Pierre Paul began her career as a reporter for Radio Haiti Inter in the late 1970s. Despite knowing that the radio station she worked for was under the dictatorship of President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier, she promoted free speech. Later, Liliane became an anchor for The Creole news programs with Kompè Filo, another famed Haitian journalist.
In fact, both Pierre Paul and Filo were imprisoned under Duvalier’s rule as they were key figures behind Haiti’s democratic movement. Meanwhile, their office Radio Haiti Inter was completely vandalized by the political police. Liliane and her colleagues also faced death threats and were even placed on government hit lists, but that couldn’t silence her either.
She was even part of Haiti’s “Black Friday” democratic march of November 28, 1980, which saw her and many other journalists, opposition leaders, and human rights activists voice for democracy in their country.
Unable to silence her, the Duvalier administration forced her into a six-year exile. During her exile, Liliane traveled across the two American continents, starting with Venezuela, stopping in the USA, and finally making her way to Canada.
However, in 1986, she returned to Haiti, re-established Radio Haiti Inter, and began anchoring the 4 pm news in Haitian Creole. For five years, Pierre Paul had a stable career, only to be disturbed again in 1991 when the military tried to overthrow the nation’s first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Once again, Liliane was forced into hiding but continued to critique the corruption.
When Michel Martelly was elected as the next President, he too tried to silence Pierre Paul but couldn’t, not even by releasing a derogatory song titled Give Her The Banana when he stepped down in 2016. In response, Pierre Paul called Martelly a “legal bandit” in a statement shared with the Haitian Times.
Among the accolades received during her lifetime, special mentions go to the Courage in Journalism Award of 1990 from the International Women’s Media Foundation and Roc Cadet de SOS Liberte Award in 2014.
