PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, CMC — Journalists and other media professionals in Haiti Wednesday vowed to actively support an anti-kidnapping campaign in the crisis-torn French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country.

They made the pledge after several journalists took to the streets over the weekend to demand the release of Pierre Louis Opont, the co-owner of the television station, Tele Pluriel, who was kidnapped on June 20, and has been kept hostage since then, despite numerous calls for his release.

Haitian journalists and media owners say they will soon launch an active campaign against kidnapping and widespread unpunished criminality, plaguing the country.

“Yes, at Radio and TV Kiskeya, we’re ready to actively participate in such a campaign; the current security situation is unbearable and should change,” said Marvel Dandin, a respected veteran journalist and director general of Radio Tele Kiskeya.

Dandin, a member of the National Association of Haitian Media, known by its french acronym ANMH, has called on the authorities to take all necessary measures to deal with the kidnappings by criminal gangs.

“It is the responsibility of those in power to act against such evil deeds, but there is a deep public’s distrust of politicians here,” Dandin told the Haitian-Caribbean News Network (HCNN).

Human rights activist Pierre Esperance, has called on the government to get tougher on crimes, such as kidnapping.

“Tough sanctions should be taken against police officers acting in complicity with bandits,” Esperance told HCN, adding “there’s no possibility for gangsters to be acting so arrogantly if they were not acting in league with a number of police officers and other government officials.

“There should be zero tolerance for bandits and for police officers conniving with them; holding somebody hostage is a terrorist act,” Esperance said, adding “this should not be allowed to continue.”

On Sunday, journalists and media workers took to the streets in the Haitian capital to demand the release of Opont, who is also a former president of the Haitian Electoral Council.

They were joined by Opont’s wife, Marie Lucie, a respected journalist here.

The Association of Haitian Journalists (AJH), SOS Journalistes and the Association of Haitian Independent Media (AMIH), have condemned the kidnappings with several people being abducted over the past months including including 40 since May 1, this year, according to the National Network to Defend Human Rights (RNDDH).