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Print media in Haiti is on the brink of extinction
Sep 17, 2024 in MEDIA SUSTAINABILITY
Print media in Haiti is almost entirely extinct today. The latest casualty is the country’s last remaining daily print newspaper, published by Le Nouvelliste.
Le Nouvelliste suspended its print edition after armed gangs attacked its offices in downtown Port-au-Prince. "The print press is almost extinct; Le Nouvelliste was the last one standing,” said Max Chauvet, the outlet’s director of operations, adding that Le Nouvelliste hopes to resume its print edition at some point down the line. “It's very troubling for a country to be without a print press.”
Although Port-au-Prince has some weekly newspapers produced from the diaspora, their circulation is limited.
The absence of print media in Haiti will have serious repercussions on the dissemination of knowledge in the country, warned Jacques Desrosiers, secretary general of the Association of Haitian Journalists.
"The print media also serves as the country's archives," he said. "If you need to learn about an event that occurred long ago, you turn to a printed newspaper. While technology offers archiving possibilities, we're not yet at that level in Haiti.”
The fragility of digital archives
The attack on the Le Nouvelliste offices was the last straw for the newsroom’s managers to decide to go fully digital.
"For now, we are unable to produce the paper version. This doesn't mean we've completely abandoned it. If order is restored and we can once again access our historic [newsroom] sites, we will resume production,” said Chauvet.
Although digital news sites can provide access to information in the absence of print media, they have limitations when it comes to data retention. "Take the example of the [Haitian] newspaper, Le Matin, which was published online. Now that the newspaper no longer exists, its content is no longer available on the web," Desrosiers noted.
Le Nouvelliste has relocated its offices from Port-au-Prince to the nearby suburb of Pétion-Ville since the attack. Still, it is too expensive to move all of the newspaper's equipment from downtown, Chauvet said, and the need for repairs and to replenish supplies is a further concern.
“We'll need to carry out repairs and reorder supplies before we can get the presses running again. But even then, how will we reach subscribers who have relocated, whether in Martissant or Carrefour-Feuilles?” said Chauvet, referring to towns outside Port-au-Prince. “It's these challenges that have led to the temporary suspension of the paper version."
Security worries also remain high. “Not only did many of them move, but also the mail carriers did not want to take the risk of delivering the newspapers," said Chauvet.
All together, the circumstances have made it nearly impossible to deliver print papers to subscribers. “The trucks could no longer get diesel, the trucks could no longer deliver the paper, we could not receive the inputs, our employees could not go on site,” said Chauvet.
Transition to digital
Le Nouvelliste had already cut back its print circulation before the attack as many subscribers had left their homes amid Haiti’s ongoing political crisis. Still others had opted to get their news only online.
"Increasingly, the demand for online content is pushing us to focus on [digital]. Now, with no income since we've lost our [print] subscribers, we're working on implementing a paywall so that online access, which is currently free, will become chargeable," Chauvet said. He cautioned that the outlet will need to close completely if it can’t find a way to monetize online subscriptions.
Print media will need help to recover, urged Desrosier. He advocated for Haitian outlets to receive state support in exchange for adhering to a well-crafted regulatory framework.
The shift to digital isn’t all negative; it offers an opportunity for the newspaper to become more independent, said Chauvet: "The advantage of having a website where subscribers pay is that our accountability shifts directly to them.”
Photo by Ian Maina on Unsplash.
This article was originally published on IJNet French and translated by Nourredine Bessadi.
HAITIANS CHALLENGE TRUMP ADMIN’S PLOY TO END CRITICAL TPS RELIEF
“This administration had no authority to prematurely remove critical TPS protections, a literal lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Haitians"
NEW YORK, NY– Nine Haitian TPS holders, the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association, and SEIU-32BJ sued the Trump Administration for prematurely halting Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian program that allows hundreds of thousands of Haitians to temporarily remain and work in the United States due to Haiti’s current conditions of extraordinary crises. Alleging that the administration’s early end of TPS was done in violation of immigration law and without proper review and driven by the President’s racial animus towards non-white immigrants, the Plaintiffs are asking for the Federal Court in the Eastern District of New York to block the administration’s order. The law offices representing Plaintiffs include Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt and Just Futures Law. Along with the lawsuit, Just Futures Law and NYU Professor Ellie Happel also filed a FOIA lawsuit demanding decision memos and country conditions reports for the 15 countries currently designated under the TPS program.
"The sudden curtailing of Haiti’s TPS designation has created tremendous fear and stress among hundreds of thousands of law-abiding and hardworking TPS holders and their families, many of whom are the parishioners of our congregations and which include children born in the United States who should not be forced to choose between their country and their parents. Haitian clergy and community leaders stand in solidarity with them,” said Pastor Samuel Nicolas, President of the Haitian Evangelical Clergy Association.
“The termination of TPS is motivated by President Trump’s long standing racial animus towards Haitians and other immigrants from countries with predominantly Black populations, not the law or the facts” said Roxana Rivera, with 32BJ SEIU. “We are filing this suit to stand up for the Haitians in our workforce and our communities, and to stand against racist bullying and the undermining of the rule of law.”
“Ending TPS for Haitians is one more chapter in a long history of racially-motivated Trump Administration attacks on vulnerable people,” said Brian Concannon, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH). “The Haitian community, their allies and the courts stood up to the unconstitutional bullying last time, and we are standing up once again.”
“This administration had no authority to prematurely remove critical TPS protections, a literal lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Haitians," said Sejal Zota, Legal Director of Just Futures Law. “By taking away this program, the Trump administration will uproot Haitian TPS holders from their homes, families, churches, workplaces and their communities in the U.S. and send them to certain misery in a Haiti overrun with gangs and suffering from a breakdown of the healthcare system and near-famine levels of hunger.”
“Trump and Noem’s actions are illegal under the TPS statute and our international promise that we will never return people to countries where their lives or freedom are threatened,” said Ira Kurzban of Kurzban Kurzban Tetzeli & Pratt. “The actions challenged in this complaint represent a depth of cruelty typical of authoritarian and fascist governments but inconsistent with our values and history as a welcoming nation.”
DHS Secretary Noem’s move to “partially vacate” the agency’s 2024 extension and redesignation of Haiti for TPS by arbitrarily cutting six months off its previously fixed expiration date means that Haitian TPS holders are at peril of being deported back into the unsafe and dangerous conditions of Haiti – a country currently wracked by political instability, rampant violence, human right abuses, a devastated health care system, and pervasive food insecurity.
Trump administration weighs travel ban on dozens of countries, memo says
Fri, March 14, 2025, 8:40 PM EDT
By Humeyra Pamuk
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration is considering issuing sweeping travel restrictions for the citizens of dozens of countries as part of a new ban, according to sources familiar with the matter and an internal memo seen by Reuters.
The memo lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea among others, would be set for a full visa suspension.
In the second group, five countries -- Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan -- would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.
In the third group, a total of 26 countries that includes Belarus, Pakistan and Turkmenistan among others would be considered for a partial suspension of U.S. visa issuance if their governments "do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days", the memo said.
A U.S. official speaking on the condition of anonymity cautioned there could be changes on the list and that it was yet to be approved by the administration, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The New York Times first reported on the list of countries.
The move harkens back to President Donald Trump's first term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the U.S. to detect national security threats.
That order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 21 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their "vetting and screening information is so deficient."
Trump's directive is part of an immigration crackdown that he launched at the start of his second term.
He previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and "anywhere else that threatens our security."
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Costas PitasEditing by Sam Holmes)