Haiti In Al-Jazeera

This week in class we talked about the Arab media and one of its television stations, Al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera, headquartered in Doha, Qatar, is an emerging channel that adheres to objective journalism and serves as a voice for the people in opposition of the government. The channel has established an international presence as well, reporting on many nations in the world. Haiti happens to be one of them.

Al-Jazeera does a pretty decent job keeping up with Haiti's news. On the web site you can find many stories about Haiti, ranging from the cholera outbreak to its presidential race. One of the articles, In pictures: Cholera outbreak, shows the tragic affect the outbreak is having on the Haitian people.  Overall, good job Al-Jazeera!

This photo, featured on the Al-Jazeera website, accompanies a story about Haiti's presidential run-off

After learning a little about Al-Jazeera, I wondered if Haiti had any websites similar to it. Because Haiti's media is still in its developing stages, it doesn't have its own website like Al-Jazeera. Instead, being a country in the Caribbean community, it is mostly covered by an on-line news website called Caribbean 360. 

Caribbean 360, established in 2005, is one of the leading news websites in the Caribbeans, providing several news stories per week to the people of the many countries in the Caribbeans, including Haiti. Stories are written on topics such as politics, finances, and sports and are free of charge to the readers. The website also provides readers with information on weather and has a storm tracker which can also send warnings directly to the users' cell phones. Caribbean 360 is headquartered in Bridgetown, Barbados. 

What makes Caribbean 360 different different from Al-Jazeera is that it does not openly criticize the governments in any of these nations. It basically reports on the happenings in the different countries. It does, however, seek to promote objective journalism and protect the rights of journalists.

So while Caribbean 360 is not completely like Al-Jazeera it does fulfill its role of providing the people with news. It also keeps a close eye on the news in Haiti.