Michele Montas, the Haitian journalist and
former
spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, has
experienced a harrowing time in aftermath of the Haitian earthquake. “Haiti appears to be on doomsday,” said Montas, who
said she has been shaken by the number of dead and wounded on the streets of
the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Her own home suffered only minor damage, Montas said,
adding that that she intends to stay in Haiti for a prolonged period to
help her country through the crisis.
The challenges are enormous, Montas said in an interview with CPJ. The smell of bodies decomposing under the rubble has filled the air, she
said. Survivors are in distress, she noted, as they live in a context in which everything—hope
and life itself—must be rebuilt. Haiti
needs immense international solidarity and support to overcome the disaster, Montas said, describing, in a voice punctuated by
anguish, a country she can no longer recognize.
Montas is the widow of the renowned
Haitian journalist Jean Dominique, who had owned and directed the
independent Radio Haïti Inter. Dominique was murdered outside
the station in 2000 in a case that has gone unsolved. Although the station
stopped operating in 2003, its offices in Delmas, north of the
capital, had been preserved in memory of Dominique
and other slain journalists. The Radio Haiti Inter offices were severely
damaged by the earthquake, Montas
told CPJ, noting that the ground floor is heavily tilted and now jeopardizes other
parts of the building.
Jean
Roland
Chery is a former Haitian journalist now living in the United States.
He is working with CPJ as a consultant for our relief efforts in response to the
Haitian earthquake.
Editor’s
Note:
If you have any information on journalists and media outlets in
Haiti please post a comment below or
notify us via e-mail msalazar@cpj.org, or Twitter: @HelpJournalists. We are
collecting funds that will go directly to Haitian journalists. If you’d like to
make a contribution, please click this link and enter
“Haiti” in the “Notes” section on the
second page.
Twitter
Facebook
Email Lists
Donate
Print
Share
Delicious
Digg
Google
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Subscribe
Hello, Mrs. Montas,
I'm very glad to see you are well and back working sharing your Journalists skills with
your fans. I hope we will one day meet. God bless you.
Sincerely,
Adolph Montas
Hello, Mrs Montes
I'have collect money for the haitians people working into the bateyes in Dominican Rep. and very soon I'll come to bring them to destination. I'm a photographer and videomaker and I would like realize a reportage into bateyes and Haiti. I' would like to realize a videoreportage about Radio haiti and the history of Jean. I live in Italy and we need to know this history. Can you help me?
Sincerely.
Stefano Manduzio
Dear Mrs. Montas
I wish to express my sympathy on the untimely death of your husband. He was a great asset to our people and I'm sure all of us Haitians people miss his steadfastness.