This past weekend, 22 journalists in the southern town of Jacmel received a certificate of completion for 36 hours of training in investigative journalism. The four women and 18 men who participated on a volunteer basis are, I hope, the first of many throughout the country who will benefit from this course thanks to a generous donation from a group of anonymous donors.

"Li Ale, Li Toune, Li Ale, Li Toune Net" was just one of the chants throngs of supporters sang outside Haiti's airport early Friday, March 18: "He left, he came back, he left, he's here to stay." The "he" is Jean-Bertand Aristide, the only president in modern history to be deposed and returned to power, then deposed again and returned a second time. Only this time, as opposed to being able to finish his truncated 5-year term as he did in 1994, he's returning from seven years exile in South Africa, ineligible to run for president again.

On Sunday, March 20, Haitians will go to the polls to elect their new president. This second-round vote for the top two contenders from a field of 19 is a first in Haiti’s history.

Rafael Candanedo, Vice President of the Forum of Journalists for Freedom of Expression and Information, made a presentation on Mi Panama Transparente in an interview in Telemetro Reporta, a very popular morning TV news show in Panama.

During the interview, Aracellys Leoteau, Telemetro Reporta's anchor said that Mi Panama Transparente is a program not only for citizens to send reports about crime and corruption, but also for journalists to play a role of social change.

Leoteau make reference to Panamanian journalists involved in producing stories based on the citizen reports as a way to h

-- Why do people laugh when I tell them I'm taking a journalism ethics course?--, I ask Flor when I see her smiling face.

-- Because I think you don't need it--, says Flor Ortega, a Panamanian journalist and ethics university professor.

I feel honored to hear Flor saying I don't need a journalism ethics course. She has been a university professor for a number of years and she has also been a founding member of the National Council of Journalism's Ethics Committee.

However, I think I need to keep studying journalism ethics.

Several weeks into an investigative training program for Haitian journalists who lost their jobs after the January 2010 earthquake, a second group of journalists asked to join.

Our first session was held in a tent on the grounds of a state school in Cite Soleil, which for years was referred to as the poorest slum in the Western hemisphere. With a million or so people still living in camps throughout the capital since last year’s earthquake, I’m not sure that label still fits. But there’s no argument that the population is poor.

The Panamanian newspapers have taken serious steps to enhance their online presence opening YouTube channels, blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts and creating crowdsourcing tools to get photos, videos and information produced by their readers.

As if the journalists I'm working with haven't had enough distractions, a new curve ball was thrown last week- the unexpected arrival of former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, who descended from an Air France flight after a near 25-year absence.

"Baby Doc's" appearance accelerated a tailspin that started with last year's earthquake. The disaster, which killed as many as 300,000, was then exacerbated by a hurricane, a cholera epidemic that has killed close to 4,000 people and a November 28 electoral dispute that is so mired in politicking that even the U.S.

Journalists in Panama are using online technology to link colleagues from Panama city, Washington, D.C., an the provinces to discuss ongoing challenges to freedom of expression.