How Do Media Currently Survive in Haiti?
, listeners, viewers, readers, in Haiti as well as in the diaspora, demand that the media inform us in real time, with rigor, professionalism, and a sense of duty. We are not content with echoes circulating on social networks. We expect press owners to mobilize their teams to verify, cross-reference, confirm or refute what is said, written, shown.
By La Rédaction · Port-au-Prince
· 3 min read · Updated 24 April 2026
Translated from French — AI-assisted and reviewed by the editorial team. The French version is authoritative. Read the original · About our translation policy
By Jean Venel Casséus
We, listeners, viewers, readers, in Haiti as well as in the diaspora, demand that the media inform us in real time, with rigor, professionalism, and a sense of duty. We are not content with echoes circulating on social networks. We expect press owners to mobilize their teams to verify, cross-reference, confirm or refute what is said, written, shown. For we still deeply believe in the legitimacy of so-called traditional media to distinguish truth from falsehood, the important from the incidental, fact from opinion.
We urge them to be vigilant, we exhort them to be courageous, we order them to be constant in their role as a counter-power. But we never ask them the essential question: how do they survive? At what cost, at what sacrifice, do Haitian media still manage to stand in a country where all structures are collapsing?
In Haiti, the subscription system is non-existent or marginal, and habits of free information consumption prevent the emergence of a culture of citizen contribution. Traditional media, for their part, cannot compete with digital platforms in terms of “views” and revenues generated by online advertising. And to top it all off, Haitian businesses, drained by a prolonged economic crisis, are closing their doors one after another. The advertising market has collapsed. Only a few international institutions or NGOs remain, occasionally funding educational or social programs, without any guarantee of stability.
In this financial void, press owners must nevertheless keep entire newsrooms running. They employ thousands of journalists, technicians, presenters, cameramen, editors, whose sole livelihood comes from these media outlets. They must cover the news in a country at war with itself, cross lawless zones, flee bullets, relocate studios, improvise temporary antennas. Some close, others survive. But all are faltering.
So, for how much longer can these media outlets survive? The question deserves to be asked, directly, lucidly. Because if nothing changes, if no collective reflection is undertaken on an economic model adapted to Haitian realities, if no concrete solidarity is shown (especially from the State and international partners), silence risks settling in, and with it, opacity. Are we ready to accept that?
March 6, 2025
About the author Jean Venel Casséus is a journalist, writer, poet, lyricist, and specialist in defense and security of the Americas. With over twenty years of journalistic experience between Radio Haïti Inter, Radio Kiskeya, Radio Caraïbes, and the written press, both in Haiti and abroad, he combines intellectual rigor and professional commitment. He holds a master's degree in defense and security of the Americas from the Inter-American Defense College (Class 55), where he received the “Excellence” medal. Involved in new media, he is the creator of Boutilye, an innovative digital broadcasting platform, and AyitiLiv.com, the first digital library dedicated to Haitian authors.
About the author Jean Venel Casséus is a journalist, writer, poet, lyricist, and specialist in defense and security of the Americas. With over twenty years of journalistic experience between Radio Haïti Inter, Radio Kiskeya, Radio Caraïbes, and the written press, both in Haiti and abroad, he combines intellectual rigor and professional commitment. He holds a master's degree in defense and security of the Americas from the Inter-American Defense College (Class 55), where he received the “Excellence” medal. Involved in new media, he is the creator of Boutilye, an innovative digital broadcasting platform, and AyitiLiv.com, the first digital library dedicated to Haitian authors.
