José Ricardo Ortega Fernández

Ricardo Ortega Fernández (April 4, 1966 – March 7, 2004) was a Spanish journalist for the television channel Antena 3, who was shot and killed while on assignment in Port-au-Prince, Haiti to cover the protests in the aftermath of the 2004 Haitian coup d'état.

Personal Ricardo Ortega Fernandez was born to parents Charo Fernández and José Luis Ortega in Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha, Province of Cuenca, Spain in 1966. As a 7-year old, he moved with his family to Alicante, Valencian Community, along the coast known as Costa Blanca, Province of Alicante. His studies were at the Primary School in Cervantes and Montgó, as well as the Historiador Chabás in Dénia. At the University of Valencia, Ortega Fernandez earned a bachelor's degree in engineering, and then went to Russia to pursue studies in nuclear physics. It was while studying in Russia that Ortega was asked by EFE to report and he turned to a career in journalism. It was reported that the initial shots came from anti-Aristide protester but that shots were returned from the other direction. In the crossfire, US photojournalist Michael Laughlin, Sun-Sentinel of Florida, was wounded. There were two accounts of Ortega's killing. According to US journalist Peter Andrew Bosh of the Miami Herald, Ortega had been in a house, located at Rue Lamarre 41-43, and providing aid with others to his wounded colleague, and when he stepped out of the house, he was shot twice. However, German photojournalist Marcel Mettelsiefen said Ortega was in a courtyard when he was shot from above. He could have been shot by either anti-Aristide protesters or by US Marines, although a Marine spokesperson disputed this assertion at the time. He took two bullets, one to the chest and one to the abdomen, in the accounts. A doctor told reporters that he was among the 5 or 6 killed along with 20 other people who had been injured by a "high velocity" weapon.

Context Already in 2004, witnesses claimed that the rounds that killed Ortega were shot by US Marines and not by pro-Aristide supporters. In April 2007, Spanish authorities called on Haiti to create a commission to look more into the case but no commission has been formed. In 2008, a Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil determined that the shots fired on Ortega most likely originated from the foreign soldiers.

Impact After Ricardo Ortega was killed in Port-au-Prince, Haitian journalists experienced more violence as pro- and anti-Aristide positions hardened. In Haiti, Abdias Jean, Robenson Laraque, and Jacques Roche were among those killed.

Reactions Koïchiro Matsuura, director-general of UNESCO, said, "I deplore the death of Ricardo Ortega, one of at least six people who appear to have been killed in indiscriminate shooting, It is essential that journalists be able to carry out their work in conditions of reasonable safety...and I urge the authorities to seek and prosecute the perpetrators of these attacks in which dozens are reported to have been wounded..."

As his body arrived in Madrid, the employees of Antena 3 paid homage to Ortega-Fernandez and the work he had accomplished on various assignments including support for and coverage of the 9/11 attacks in New York City in 2001. He received the Medalla al Mérito en el Trabajo, just like José Couso Permuy, Julio Anguita Parrado, Julio Fuentes, Jordi Pujol i Puente and Juan Antonio Rodríguez Moreno.