Statement Reporters Sans Frontières

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is a non-profit, non-governmental independent organization that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press worldwide. The organization has consultative status at the United Nations, Unesco and the Council of Europe.

Our mission is to

• continuously monitor attacks on freedom of information worldwide
• denounce any such attacks in the media
• advocate with governments to fight censorshipand laws aimed at restricting freedom of information
• offer material, financial and psychological assistance to journalistsin order to enhance their safety
• and to morally and financially assist persecuted journalists, as well as their families.

Our headquarter is based in Paris with around 40 staff members working for the French organization. However, RSF is also an international network of different sections and offices in Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, London, Madrid, Stockholm, Taipei, Tunis, Vienna, Rio and Washington, D.C. Additionally, RSF has more than 130 correspondents on all continents, who report to the researchers in Paris.

Most of those correspondents are journalists in their home countries, who monitor the local press freedom situation and report to RSF. However, since being a RSF correspondent could put some of them at risk, the list of correspondents is non-public. A big part of the activity of Regional desks’ researchers is stay in close touch with correspondents, to communicate everyday with them, in order to gather information on the local situation, on legal issues or individual cases of journalists victims of exactions.

Confidentiality of the communications between RSF and its network, in particular with its correspondents outside the EU, is essential to preserve their safety, the safety of their family and secrecy of RSF sources. Any breach of confidentiality, any surveillance over any of RSF’s network member, in particular outside the EU, would seriously put them at risk and compromise RSF ability to promote press freedom around the world.