Mr Claude Gilles, directeur du centre opérationnel des médias

Haitian media paid a sad tribute to the 12 January earthquake. Many journalists died and for those who survived, most of their work tools were wrecked. In the aftermath of such a catastrophe, the population had and still has a real need for information. Reporters Without Borders, Quebecor, the Centre for the Francophonie of the Americas and the French Foundation, coming from previous experiences of this kind, collaborated to set up a press centre to house, as a priority, the local journalists.

A short time after the opening, the promoters of this project appointed Claude Gilles to manage it. Claude is a Haitian journalist who works for Le Nouvelliste, the oldest daily newspaper in Haiti. Since then, the centre has hosted several journalists who found here a place to carry on with their activity. Some of them, motivated by the training organized in the centre by Internews, have devoted themselves to “humanitarian journalism”.

Loramus Rosemond, journalist, 42 years, has been living in a camp for displaced people for more than 6 months. He tells us about the importance of the Media Centre for the many journalists who are in the same situation:

The centre has a great importance for all these journalists whose priority is to inform the population in the precarious situation that followed the earthquake. In the following video, Claude Gilles explains how the Operational Media Centre operates. The centre is located in the area of Bourdon, in Port-au-Prince.

music (interview) – by Antoine Chevallier (Postillon) => Myspace