Emergency centre of operations for journalists nearly ready, but will need broader help to keep going in mid-term

Reporters Without Borders and the Canadian media group Quebecor are in the process of installing an emergency centre of operations for Haitian journalists in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Canapé-Vert. Located on Cheriez Street, the centre will have communications equipment provided by Quebecor. A second equipment convoy is due to arrive today from the Dominican Republic. The centre’s priority aim is to provide journalists who have not been able to work since the earthquake with essential means of communication. It is also intended to facilitate contact between media representatives and to provide government officials, politicians and NGOs with a a way to communicate with the Haitian media. The Canapé-Vert centre also aims to provide a service to international news media seeking to understand Haitian reality, and could eventually produce and disseminate news and information in its own right by, for example, employing journalists with Haitian print media whose distribution has been suspended as a result of the earthquake. Up to 20 journalists will be able to work in the centre at any one time. It also has a news conference room that can hold 40 people and a terrace that can hold 60 people. It will have broadband Internet, telephone lines, an audio and video conference system, a satellite TV link and printers, as well as facilities for journalists in distress. The centre is meant to relay Haitian journalists’ requests to the international community and to help evaluate the reconstruction needs of Haitian news media and the assistance needs of individual journalists and their families. The setting-up of the Emergency centre of operations is possible due to the grateful support of the Roland Berger Foundation. To be able to continue operating in the medium term, the centre will need technical and financial assistance from other NGOs, international bodies and foreign media. We would like to draw this need to the particular attention of the governments of the five countries with especially close links with Haiti: Canada, France, Brazil, Mexico and the United States, as well the Spanish presidency of the EU. We reiterate our appeal for donations and technical assistance. Help us to help Haitian journalists. With the support of