The challenges of setting up an investigative reporting team in Haiti reflect the challenges of the country as it tries to lift itself up from the weight of the January 12 earthquake. Management of resources, strategic planning, access to verifiable information, planning, insufficient infrastructure and materials, as well as security concerns influence, and in many cases hamper, Haiti’s reconstruction effort. These same elements enter into the reporting equation as well, only more so for investigative reporting.
Like every sector in Haiti, media took a hit when the 7.0 trembler struck. Signal FM was the only radio station in the capital able to give continuous news in the days that followed. One of Signal FM’s journalists is participating in ICFJ’s newly launched investigative journalism pilot project. Other partners include Radio Metropole, Haiti Press Network, and the country’s only daily newspaper, Le Nouvelliste.
This group of journalists, whose experiences range from 7 months to more than 15 years, decided together which topic to investigate and agreed to produce one final multimedia product. They scheduled weekly meetings to share resources, ideas and results.
But little goes in a straight line in Haiti, and this pilot project is no different. Due to demands from the stations, logistical constraints, lack of access to resources and most importantly lack of time, the group has eliminated the weekly meeting and they are now working on individual projects that relate to the initial topic. Instead of meeting with them as a group, I now spend a morning a week with each in their newsroom environment; in two instances I actually do training with the whole newsroom before their regularly scheduled morning meetings.
On most days, the reporters have one, two, even three stories to cover, so there is no question of becoming an expert on any topic – their reports are limited to the information gleaned from a press conference or available sources. If the journalist takes public transportation, hours can be lost in traffic where an influx of four-wheel-drive vehicles have further congested streets already squeezed with overcrowded buses, slabs of concrete, mounds of rubble and poorly placed tents. In one instance, three to four journalists share the station’s vehicle. So the driver may be an hour or two late in dropping off or picking up journalists from events they are covering.
The desire to learn is evident, from owners to newsroom editors to the journalists themselves. In that department, I’ve encountered no resistance. The journalists also look forward to the coaching, which is both specific and general, depending on their experience. In two cases, the time spent involves expanding a network of sources, interview techniques, organizing files and saving telephone numbers someplace other than a cell phone. In other cases it involves fighting through the bureaucratic wall that makes gathering information here so difficult.
Unfortunately, journalism in Haiti is not considered a noble profession – it’s a stepping-stone to other opportunities. Because of past political violence, security concerns and financial restrictions, many of Haiti’s most seasoned journalists have moved away from reporting and opened their own stations, left the country, or taken jobs with one of the hundreds non-governmental agencies that have flooded Haiti since the quake. It is my hope that as the pilot project expands and the stories the journalists produce on what is happening in the country include more details, analysis and in-depth coverage, investigative reporting will become the norm as opposed to the exception.