Covering local news in Haiti

Prioritising coverage of local issues, giving a voice to citizens and communities in the provinces, reaching out to the regions in terms of the treatment of news: these are the main objectives of the Info Toupatou project.

The workshop, which was held from 16 to 24 January 2019 at the offices of the Cap Haïtien Alliance Française, was led by Achim Lippold (RFI journalist) and Nicole Siméon (consultant and trainer), and focused on the importance of promoting local and citizens' news over the airwaves. After a recap of the basic principles of journalism, the journalists set off to produce reports in the field, covering a number of stories relating to various issues in the city of Cap Haïtien: the impact of electricity failures and the fuel crisis on residents' everyday lives, the issue of prolonged preventive detention, the poor running of the Justinien hospital emergency department, or the difficulties in obtaining a national identity card, etc.

After this session, the journalists will benefit from remote editorial and educational support, enabling them to continue their production work and strengthen the position of local news at their media outlet.
Two other sessions on local news report techniques will be organised for a second group of journalists from the 16 beneficiary radio broadcasters by spring 2019.
This time, the events will be held in the Artibonite region (Gonaïves) and in the Centre region (Hinche).

The Info Toupatou project is being carried out in partnership with the French Embassy in Haiti, et le Haiti Network of Alliances Françaises.