Info Toupatou is helping France strengthen the media in Haiti

It is implemented by CFI, with support from Ambassade de France, Institut français en Haïti and Réseau des Alliances françaises en Haïti.

The opening seminar in this programme took place from 6 to 8 June 2018 at the Satama Hotel at Cap-Haïtien, and brought together editorial team managers from 15 radio stations broadcasting not only in Port-au-Prince, but also in Cap-Haïtien, Les Cayes, Gonaïves, Hinche, Jacmel, Jérémie and Ouanaminthe. An invitation to attend was also extended to media professionals and communicators and to representatives from civil society organisations and local authorities, totalling around 60 attendees.

Designed as an experience-sharing session focusing on the place of local news in the Haitian media system and the socio-economic, cultural or social challenges it must address, the aim of this seminar was to give participants the chance to reflect on the impact of enhanced coverage of news in Haiti's 10 départements in terms of editorial value and financial opportunity. It was also intended to lay the foundations for improved collaboration between the media in the capital and the media in the provinces, allowing more in-depth reporting on local concerns on the part of the beneficiary media outlets.

This opportunity to reflect was followed, from 9 to 15 June 2018, by a training session for the participating editorial team managers, which was offered by two sets of trainers working in tandem: two from Haiti and two who had arrived from France especially for the seminar. Given the diverse situations of the radio stations concerned, this training was to address a wide range of topics, including content selection, processing content, editorial management and ethics, with a view to reconciling listeners' expectations and social responsibility on the part of the media.

This opening seminar and the subsequent training session are part of a cooperation project implemented as part of an ongoing skills-enhancing programme. In addition to addressing the opening-up of the provinces in terms of treatment of news, Info Toupatou also aims to implement actions in the following three complementary areas: improvement of governance and economic viability of local radio stations; consolidation of local life-long training capabilities; and support for the role of the media in citizen-led control of public initiatives.