WASHINGTON, D.C. — Local radio stations in Haiti have begun airing Creole-language humanitarian information broadcasts produced by Internews in collaboration with a growing alliance of humanitarian aid and media assistance providers.
The programme series, Nouvelle-Utiles (News You Can Use) is now being produced daily and distributed to local radio stations, which are eager to air it.
Sunday’s programs brought Haitians up to date on the earthquake rescue operation as the majority of emergency search personnel withdraw; however Nouvelles-Utiles was able to confirm that there are still three teams on standby for at least the next ten days to respond to calls if there is a credible report that someone may be alive and trapped. There were also further updates on essential health and water supply information, along with news of the latest official IDP camps to be opened.
Stations airing the programmes include: Radio Signal, a popular Port-au-Prince station which never stopped broadcasting, even during the earthquake; Radio ONE, the only independent radio station with national reach; and Radio National, Haiti’s state broadcaster.
Local journalists reported the stories in the broadcast with support from Internews team member Yves Colon, a Haitian journalist with more than 20 years of experience at publications including the Miami Herald and current Journalism lecturer atthe University of Miami.
An Internews team of media specialists and radio technicians has been in Haiti since the earthquake to assess damage to media infrastructure and support local media. Internews is a founding member of the Inter-Agency Group on Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) that includes UN OCHA, key agencies such as the Red Cross and Save the Children and other media assistance providers such as the BBC World Service Trust, the Thomson Reuters Foundation and IMS. UN OCHA has charged Internews as the lead agency on the ground to coordinate CDAC members’ humanitarian information and media assistance activities in order to achieve maximum impact across the nation’s ravaged media landscape.
Internews is able to deploy its team with generous support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and other donors. Internews is an international media development organisation that empowers local media worldwide to serve the information needs of their communities. The organisation has worked in over 70 countries and trained over 80,000 media professionals.
CONTACT:
John Boit (jboit@melwoodglobal.com)
TEL: (202) 822-2093
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