The Courier

In the early years of the 20th Century, Haitians left home to work in the Dominican sugar cane plantations that supplied factories built or financed by the Americans. In the 1960s an agreement was concluded between the two countries for the supply of seasonal workers to gather the Dominican sugar cane harvest. After this agreement was condemned following the fall of the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, many Haitians continued to migrate to the Dominican Republic, principally in search of employment.

Today, although no population census has been taken, Dominican officials speak of over a million Haitians living in the country. The Dominican Republic sees this migration as a burden and is continually repatriating Haitian migrants under conditions that violate the most basic human rights, including the breaking up of families, deportation at night with no coordination with the Haitian authorities, and other forms of ill-treatment.

The background to this present situation is a long history of enmity and disputes. The Haitians have not forgotten the massacre of about 30,000 of their countrymen in the Dominican Republic in 1937 on the orders of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. For their part, the Dominicans remember the harsh regime of occupation imposed on them by Jean-Pierre Boyer’s Haitian Government between 1822 and 1844.

There are also cultural differences between the two societies that fuel prejudices in the Dominican Republic, whose population claims an Indian and Spanish heritage, while the Haitians invoke their African heritage.

This state of affairs does not favour understanding between Haitians and Dominicans and influences the work of the media, affecting information about Haitian-Dominican relations.

For a long time, the Haitian media provided only sporadic coverage of the Dominican issue, based on dispatches by international press agencies. While the Haitian press operated in almost total ignorance of their neighbouring country, the Dominican press simply reported the official line on Haiti held by the Dominican authorities.

New technology

Over the past few years, however, the development of New Communication and Information Technologies (NICTs) and the activities of alternative sectors of the communication field have allowed information on Haitian-Dominican relations to take a new direction and acquire an increased presence in the Haitian media.

One of the agencies that has worked systematically on this question is AlterPresse (www.alterpresse.org), an alternative Haitian news network and member of the Groupe Médialternatif that started operations in 2002. AlterPresse gives priority to reporting on Haitian-Dominican relations, regularly covering key issues in both French and Spanish.

It has produced several hundred articles, some in cooperation with Dominican colleagues, mainly concerned with migration, border issues, bi-national trade, human rights, the environment, natural disasters, health, tourism, culture and so on.

With more than 20,000 hits a day and with its reports relayed by a range of media (radio, television, newspapers, Internet sites) throughout Haiti, the Dominican Republic and further afield, AlterPresse has helped to ensure greater media coverage of Haitian-Dominican affairs, as well as, influencing several decisions on these issues.

AlterPresse has professional and friendly relations with Espacio Insular, an alternative Dominican agency that came on line in August 2006. In February 2007, they signed a cooperation agreement and last November completed a study on Haitian-Dominican relations and how these are presented in the media in both countries, organising a meeting of Haitian and Dominican journalists in Port-au-Prince to discuss the issues involved.

The journalists realise that the two countries that share the same island also share a common destiny. Understanding and cooperation is therefore necessary to overcome any hostility, facilitate understanding and harmony, and create prospects for a common development rooted in a sense of solidarity.

*Gotson Pierre is a co-founder of the Groupe Media Alternatif

** Town where sugar workers live in poor conditions

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