A consortium of journalism organizations announced Thursday that it had formed the Haiti News Project, an international effort that aims to help Haitian print reporters recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake. `SENSE OF NORMALCY' ``Restoring basic communications in Haiti can foster a sense of normalcy amid the chaos,'' said Joe Oglesby, the project head and a former editorial page editor of The Miami Herald.
Oglesby and the group plan on reviving Haiti's small yet vital newspaper industry because that is where their collective expertise lies. High on the agenda: Providing equipment and technology, professional training, and tents for reporters who lost their homes in the quake that claimed more than 200,000 lives.
``The Haitian media has a tough and critical job to do as this recovery gets under way,'' said Miami Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, one of the leaders of the effort. ``We hope with a broad and dedicated coalition we'll be able to supply the kind of support that will help make it possible to do that very important work.''
A separate international media group is already working to get Haiti's radio outlets -- the main source of information here -- back on their feet. The Haiti News Project stems from a preliminary report that found Haiti's two main newspapers, Le Nouvelliste and Le Matin, had shortcomings but that they are worth preserving.
The papers played ``an outsized function in pre-quake Haitian public affairs'' and also ``tended to serve as seminal sources of news that was typically re-broadcast on radio.'' STAFF LOSSES Both newspapers sustained significant damage and staff losses, though through attrition rather than death and injury.
The media agencies involved are the American Society of News Editors, the Inter American Press Association, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Association of Black Journalists, Poder Magazine, the Poynter Institute and UNITY: Journalists of Color.
Those in Haiti welcomed the support -- but with reservations. ``It's a good first step but let's see what it's going to bring us,'' said Max Chauvet, owner of Le Nouvelliste. ``If I'm a skeptic it's because so many promises have been made.''