Haiti
2010
Media must not be left behind as Haiti rebuilds
The earthquake that rocked Haiti didn’t spare anyone, including the media. Like every institution in the troubled country, the media has had its share of challenges. They cannot pay decent salaries to reporters and the reporting most often doesn’t go beyond the headlines. International organizations have developed training programs for Haitian journalists, but those journalists…
Haiti’s Radio Tele Caraïbes lost its offices, not its mission
Radio Tele Caraïbes is out on the street after losing the use of its offices in the January 12 earthquake, but the Port-au-Prince broadcaster has resumed operations nonetheless. A makeshift newsroom has been set up in a tent in the middle of a street. Staff meetings and discussions are being held under the gaze of…
Community radio stations obliterated, off the air in Haiti
More than two weeks after earthquake that devastated Haiti, several community radio stations are still off the air. In the western and southeastern parts of the country, at least 16 stations are facing serious problems that have suspended their broadcasts, Sony Esteus, executive director of SAKS, a local organization of community radio stations, told CPJ. The earthquake…
Haitian media casualties, damages mount
Working in an atmosphere of great confusion and grief, our sources in Haiti are compiling preliminary lists of media casualties, documenting damages to news facilities, and examining the challenges ahead. SOS Journalistes, a press advocacy group led by the prominent Haitian journalist Guyler Delva, reports that at least 11 journalists died in the January 12…
For Haiti’s Michele Montas, trauma and determination
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…
In Haiti, initial media toll is released
The Association of Haitian Journalists has recorded at least three media fatalities and one seriously wounded journalist as a preliminary toll from the earthquake that struck the Caribbean island on January 12. In an interview with CPJ from Port-au-Prince, AJH Secretary General Jacques Desrosiers identified the early victims as Wanel Fils, a reporter with Radio…
In Haiti, Signal FM staff keeps station running
Signal FM is the only Haitian radio station to continuously broadcast during and after the powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake that ravaged the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas on January 12. Signal’s online news service kept operating as well. The station’s equipment, located in Petionville (east of Port-au-Prince) remained in service, withstanding, remarkably, tremors to the building…
How to help journalists in Haiti
The scenes from Port-au-Prince are horrifying, and the needs are staggering. There is no food, no water, no place to bury the dead. And there is also no information. According to CPJ’s Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauria, who spoke with Haitian journalist Guylar Delva today, only a handful of Creole-language radio stations are operating. Journalists are unable to work…
Haitian journalist describes scenes of death and destruction
At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, prominent Haitian journalist Joseph Guyler Delva, 43, was driving his car on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Delva, the country’s leading press freedom advocate, was on his way to pick-up his 7-year-old daughter from school when he heard a loud bang. “I thought I was hit by a truck,” he said. After…