Deploring the killing of a Spanish television reporter covering a demonstration in Haiti, the head of the United Nations cultural organization has called on the authorities to punish those responsible for the killing.

"It is essential that journalists be able to carry out their work in conditions of reasonable safety, even in cases of conflict," said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard at a press briefing in New York.

"I urge the authorities to seek and prosecute the perpetrators of these attacks in which dozens are reported to have been wounded,including four other journalists," he said, reading out a statement by Ko-chiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Spanish reporter was one of at least six people apparently killed in indiscriminate shooting outside the Presidential Palace on Sunday when loyalists of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide opened fire on the crowd.