Le Nouvelliste resumes daily publication in Haiti

Three months after the January 12 earthquake, Haiti’s oldest newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, has resumed daily publication. The April 6 issue not only signaled the resumption of daily publication, it marked a return to some normality, said Frantz Duval, the daily’s new editor-in-chief.

Max Chauvet, the newspaper’s owner, said the revival of Le Nouvelliste, the only daily in Haiti, was an important step in re-establishing free expression and the free flow of information in the country. In the weeks after the earthquake, the paper published 12 occasional issues as a way to keep the print edition alive, the newspaper’s managers said. The paper’s Web site, however, was regularly updated by staff after the earthquake.

Duval said all staff journalists with Le Nouvelliste have resumed work, including a dozen reporters who were placed on inactive status immediately after the catastrophe.

Duval told CPJ that the paper’s daily circulation has dropped to about 10,000 copies, from its pre-earthquake figure of 15,000. He said the paper’s advertisers are coming back slowly, noting that since January about 30 percent of pre-earthquake advertising has resurfaced.