the presentation - The HAITI Earthquake of Jan 2010

Media landscape in Haiti
Jean Claude Louis, PANOS
Canada/Caribbean
The Haiti Earthquake: Lessons Learned
York University
January 2011
Media landscape in Haiti
• About 300 radios stations countrywide, 2030 TV stations. PAP alone owns over 50
radios
• Radio plays a crucial role in the life of
Haitian and reach a very big audience.
• 92% of Haitians own/have access to a
radio set and rely on radio to be informed
and entertained
• 2 dailies(private) with less than
20,000copies available mostly in the
Capital (pop: over 3 m)
Media landscape
• Talk show or call in programs serves as one of
the few ways in which Haitian can speak out
about politics and the government
• With very few local production, most broadcast
soap operas pirated from foreign channels
• Only few modest families have access to cables
• Cost of a newspaper: 25-50 gourdes
“unaffordable for most people” (1US$=40G)
• Radio, a way out for Haitians to criticize GVT,
CSO and stakeholders- to complain the lack of
services.
Impact on the local media
• The earthquake has fragilised further the situation of the
media in the affected areas
• The overall communication structure in Haiti has been
dramatically weakened
• 31 journalists were killed throughout the country and at
least 13 were wounded. Many have left the country
• Lost of revenue for the media with the collapse of many
businesses
• Journalists and media in Haiti have focused on their
survival rather than their freedom since the earthquake
in early 2010 devastated parts of the country????
Radio Caraibe, a pioneer in radio diffusion in Haiti
Radio Ibo and Panos Caribbean used to share this
facility
Studio under a tent
Local media in the aftermath of the quake
• Very few of them that remain on the air. Most journalists
were looking for families and friends. The 2 or so radios
that remain on the air were the sole information
providers for local as well as the diaspora.
• They play a Key role after January 12, allow families to
reconnect.
• Radio Signal helps keep the country afloat. The luck of
being saved allowed Signal FM to be the only local
media outlet broadcasting through the first frantic days
following the catastrophic quake that devastated this
Caribbean country
• Keeping itself on air, the station became a crucial source
of information that helped get thousands of people to
hospitals and back with their families
Local Media
• One veteran journalist could not save the
life of his wife and returned to his radio to
report and helped save lives
• When Internet resumed, a wave of emails
from families swept in asking about loved
ones, and Signal FM relayed the message
onto the shattered streets of Port-auPrince.
Challenges
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Many of those media have fired half their staff, no stream of in come trough
Ads
The few dedicated journalists and media have no means to report on
everything
Lack of funding to produce information locally
Bulk of funding go to international media organization, no long term
commitment
Many journalists have left the country
Many are unemployed
Lack of Human and financial resources for investigative journalism to track
where is the money
There is an opacity regarding information either from government or from
NGOs
Fragilised situation of the media
The International media, a year after?
• Their coverage oscillated between
sensationalism and optimism
• Reports were done based on their own
perspectives
• Special reports are planned for the anniversary
• All the fuss is about to be over
• The euphoria of the International media is
phasing out little by little
Media has a key role to play in reconstruction
process
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Promoting the debates-inclusion of Haitian in the process/Cannot
rely on Int’l media to play this role
Ensure that the voices of the unheard/the marginalized are heard
Tracking the funds and monitoring spending
Ensure decisions makers to be accountable. The law voted on the
emergency situation make them not accountable
Provide accurate info to media outlet and the outside world
Serve as an observatory through follow up of information, advocacy,
debates and inclusion of all sectors
One of the key observation is that the audience is paying more
attention to alerts and forecast
They rely on the media to be informed
What Panos has been doing
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Set up local and Regional reporting teams
• Work with local journalists to monitor funding, impact
• Document voices of beneficiaries and Haitians rebuilding
their lives and country
• Photo documentaries of the reconstruction (photos
update)
• Commissioning and dissemination of several articles
on the post quake situation in Haiti ( a way for journalists
to resume their lives)
• Document the voices of the marginalized who are left out
in the process as they have a voice in the debate.
Perspectives
• The Haitian media needs to be supportedWe need funding to cope, to work with
media and journalists
• Build the journalists capacity building to
track funding and works done
• Partnership between international and
local media/ Fellowships
• Exchange between
Caribbean/international media
About Panos Caribbean
Panos Caribbean’s mission is to
“amplify the voices of the poor and the
marginalised through the media and
ensure their inclusion in the public and
policy debates…”
Visit us at: www.panoscaribbean.org
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
The media
• Event # 1 of the year for CNN and ABC
• Event # in Europe (France)
• 23,45% of media coverage in Canada, more BO
investiture and 9/11
• The event overshadowed other weekly news for 9
consecutive weeks in Quebec
• 62 messages/s on social networks
• 6 minutes of coverage across the globe for the first 24
hours
• About 825,000 press articles across the world between
January 13-14
• If it was possible to listen to the radio and TV coverage
of the event for the first 7 days for 24 hrs, some 70 years
will be needed.