Reporters Without Borders is an NGO that promotes press freedom and assists journalists. It also works to make journalism safer, publishes annual indexes of press freedoms, and offers guides for safe reporting and working online. The organization is funded by various agencies, donations, and sales of materials. However, it has faced criticism for its funding sources and impartiality.
Reporters Without Borders is an international organization founded with the aim of promoting freedom of the press. The organization facilitates a variety of activities to promote press freedom while also assisting journalists, and has expanded its efforts into the online world in the 21st century, helping to educate and protect bloggers and others who post information online. This organization is supported through funding from a variety of agencies around the world, along with donations from supporters and proceeds from the sale of books and other materials.
Reporters Without Borders was founded in 1985 in Montpellier, France by Robert Menard, RoBrauman and Jean-Claude Guillebaud. The French name of the organization is Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The name of this organization may remind you of another major non-governmental organization (NGO), Doctors Without Borders. The similarity is intentional; one of the founders actually worked with Médecins Sans Frontières before assisting in the founding of Reporters Without Borders.
This organization works in various ways to protect press freedom and to assist journalists. Reporters Without Borders helps defend accused and imprisoned journalists, publicizing their cases and contributing to their legal funds, while also lobbying politically to agitate for their release. The organization also offers financial aid to struggling journalists and organizations promoting press freedom and seeks to actively combat censorship in various ways around the world.
RSF also works to make journalism safer. It maintains an up-to-date list of journalists who are killed on the job and fights for safe access to breaking news for journalists. Reporters Without Borders also helps outfit journalists in things like bulletproof vests for war zones, and lobbies governments in an effort to ensure journalists are not harmed or threatened in the line of duty. RSF also makes homicide and intimidation cases very public, attracting public attention.
Reporters Without Borders publishes a variety of publications, including an annual index of press freedoms based on extensive research from around the world. It also publishes safe reporting guides worldwide, along with a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents that contains useful information on working in the online environment.
This press NGO is not without controversy. Some people have pointed out that some of the organization’s funding sources could compromise its integrity. Others have been critical of the organization’s stance on Cuba, which it claims is a serious violator of press freedom. Some critics have also pointed out that Reporters Without Borders is not always impartial in the way it handles news and information, which is a very valid concern.
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