Jamaica's Press Freedom Environment versus Haiti's
When 18º North started broadcasting its TV newsmagazine in 2013, Jamaica ranked 13th of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF)—the highest in the Western Hemisphere.
Jamaican authorities heralded the freedom of its press and the ability of its journalists to operate mostly unbothered.
Today, that ranking has dropped to 24.
While an improvement from 32 last year, RSF cited a case in September 2023 of a gunman opening fire in the parking lot of Nationwide Radio’s Kingston offices where no one was hurt. It also mentioned an incident where a videographer for Television Jamaica and a reporter for the Jamaica Gleaner were attacked in November 2022 while covering a teachers’ protest in St. Catherine Parish outside Kingston when a man interrupted their interview and damaged their equipment.
But as disturbing as these cases are, they’re rare and nothing compared to Haiti, which ranks 93rd on the press freedom index.
In the years since 2021, when President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, the Paris-headquartered media advocacy group stated that journalists in Haiti have been targeted by gangs and have been victims of attacks, kidnappings and even murders. Their movement has been restricted as well. “As the gangs have extended their control over the capital, journalists have been able to work in fewer and fewer districts, not without considerable risk,” RSF stated.
In 2022, RSF revealed, at least six journalists were killed in connection with their work. In the absence of the rule of law, this increased violence is committed with impunity. On Friday, Haitian media organization SOS Journalistes demanded justice in the cases of murdered journalists and implored the newly-installed transitional presidential council to use its influence to advance the cases of those killed.
The precarious situation on the ground for Haitian journalists combined with a teetering economy that threatens their livelihoods is why 18º North has decided to do a fundraiser to help.
All money raised will go to the media development organization, Institut Panos, which will use the money to provide items like recorders, bulletproof vests and helmets to facilitate journalists' work as well as to give small grants to reporters to produce stories on the environment and fighting disease like cholera, which has resurfaced and compounded the crisis.
You can donate to this organization by going to this GoFundMe page we’ve set up for the organization here:
You can also take out a yearly subscription to 18º North at a special discount rate of US$50, which is 50% off. By subscribing between today and tomorrow, May 5-6, you’ll get the benefit of being first to see our investigations in full when they’re released, plus the satisfaction of knowing that all your spending with us for your first year will be turned over to Panos after the platforms we use - Substack and Stripe - take out their fees (just under 15% between the two).
It’s at times like this that you realize that Jamaica may have its problems, but the printing press of our oldest continuously-published newspaper still works, unlike that of Haiti’s that was recently vandalized. Jamaican journalists can still criticize officials openly and move around freely. We can sometimes get access to information officials want to hide because of the Access To Information Act, which doesn’t exist in Haiti. At the end of the day, despite some intimidation, journalists in Jamaica can mostly do our jobs.
Join us in helping to make it a little bit easier for Haitian journalists to do theirs. Thank you for supporting this initiative by 18º North and Institut Panos.
Sincerely,
Zahra Burton
Founder and Chief Reporter of 18º North
and
Jean-Claude Louis
Coordinator of Institut Panos.