Haiti

Haiti's best known press freedom activist, Guyler Delva, sent out a frantic call for help yesterday morning. At least 70 journalists and media workers in the northern city of Gonaïves are living in dire circumstances, Delva said in his e-mail. They need food, clothes, and shelter, as well as equipment, he specified. In short, "they have lost everything in the recent floods."

On the other side of Hispaniola Island from the lavish tourist resorts in the Dominican Republic, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. Politically, the harsh Duvalier dictatorships and the controversial Aristide era devastated the country. This year, starving mobs protested the high prices of basic food staples as the international press reported that many are surviving on mud cakes.