Radio Télévision Nationale d’Haïti (RTNH) is the state broadcasting company in Haiti that emerged through the merger between Télévision Nationale d’Haïti and Radio Nationale in 1987. Télévision Nationale d’Haïti (TNH) was founded 1956.
Media assets
Television: Tele Haiti
Radio: Radio Nationale
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
RTNH used to be run as a state institution by the Ministry of Information and Coordination. In 1995, the broadcaster was taken over by the Ministry of Culture, which operates it at the moment, controlling its management and internal decision making processes, according to local journalists and media experts.
Source of funding and budget
RTNH is fully funded by the government, according to data from the government. In the fiscal year 2018-2019, the broadcaster operated with a budget of HTG 220m (US$3.4m) coming all from the government, according to the latest data available from sources at RTNH.
Editorial independence
Although it is not anymore the government propaganda channel that it used to be in the first decade of the 2000s, RTNH is still editorially controlled by the government, which makes all the decisions about the broadcaster’s editorial agenda, according to local journalists and media experts.
No domestic statute and no independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate RTNH’s editorial independence have been identified.
August 2023