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Reporters Without Borders

International organisation for freedom of the press

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
9 min read
Source updated September 8, 2026
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Reporters Without Borders (French: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as founded on the belief that everyone requires access to the news and information, in line with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognises the right to receive and share information regardless of frontiers, along with other international rights charters. RSF has consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the International Organisation of the Francophonie.

RSF works on the ground in defence of individual journalists at risk and at the highest levels of government and international forums to defend the right to freedom of expression and information. It provides daily briefings and press releases on threats to media freedom in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Persian and Chinese and publishes an annual press freedom round up, the World Press Freedom Index, that measures the state of media freedom in 180 countries. The organisation provides assistance to journalists at risk and training in digital and physical security, as well as campaigning to raise public awareness of abuse against journalists and to secure their safety and liberty. RSF lobbies governments and international bodies to adopt standards and legislation in support of media freedom and takes legal action in defence of journalists under threat. In addition, RSF keeps a yearly count of journalists killed on the job.

01Organization

RSF was founded in Montpellier, France, in 1985 by Robert Ménard, Rémy Loury, Jacques Molénat and Émilien Jubineau. It was registered as a non-profit organisation in 1995. Ménard was RSF's first secretary general, succeeded by Jean-François Julliard. Christophe Deloire was appointed secretary-general in 2012, and remained so until his death in June 2024. Thibaut Bruttin is the current secretary-general, appointed in November 2024.

RSF's head office is based in Paris. As of 2018, it has 13 regional and national offices, including Brussels, London, Washington, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Taipei and Dakar, and a network of 146 correspondents with 57 salaried staff in Paris and internationally. As of 2016, a board of governors, elected from RSF's members, approves the organisation's policies, while an International Council has oversight of its activities and approves the budget.

In August 2025, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation declared RSF an "undesirable organization" in Russia, effectively banning operations within the country.

Protest action in Paris, April 2008, displaying a 'Reporters Without Borders (RSF)' flag depicting the Olympic rings in the form of handcuffs or padlocks, along with the legend 'Beijing 2008'
Protest action in Paris, April 2008, displaying a 'Reporters Without Borders (RSF)' flag depicting the Olympic rings in the form of handcuffs or padlocks, along with the legend 'Beijing 2008'
Head office in Paris
Head office in Paris

02Initiatives

World Press Freedom Index

Journalism Trust Initiative

The Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) seeks to assure readers that participating outlets are credible. RSF launched the JTI in 2018 with its partners: the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Agence France-Presse (AFP), and the Global Editors Network (GEN). The indicators focus on transparency, good governance, and accountability. Like The Trust Project, the JTI focuses only on the process of how journalism is created rather than evaluating an outlet's content. The JTI had more detailed criteria and a longer process designed to align with regulatory statutes in Europe. JTI standards have been used to inform standards for policies in Canada and the European Union. As of November 2025, 2,000 media organizations worldwide have registered with JTI including the Associated Press and BBC World News.

A 2023 analysis by the Center for International Media Assistance concluded that initiatives like JTI could significantly encourage more accurate news reporting. However, the study noted that evaluating the success of these relatively new programs remains difficult. This challenge arises because it is hard to measure how platform algorithms incorporate or ignore these reliability signals.

Actions

RSF's defence of journalistic freedom includes international missions, the publication of country reports, training of journalists and public protests.

RSF has published the Munich Charter, an authoritative document which clarifies the "Rights and Obligations" of Journalists. The Charter was initially developed by the German Journalist Association and first published in Munich 1971, and is accepted as authoritative within the profession. It was later adopted by most journalists' unions in Europe.

During 2017, some global advocacy and practical interventions included: opening a centre for women journalists in Afghanistan, a creative protest with street-artist C215 in Strasbourg for Turkish journalists in detention, turning off the Eiffel Tower lights in tribute to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and providing training to journalists and bloggers in Syria.

In July 2018, RSF sent a mission to Saudi Arabia to call for the release of 30 journalists. The organisation publishes a gallery of Predators of Press Freedom, highlighting the most egregious international violators of press freedom. It also has maintained an online Press Freedom Barometer, monitoring the number of journalists, media workers and citizen journalists killed or imprisoned. Its programme Operation Collateral Freedom, launched in 2014, provides alternative access to censored websites by creating mirror sites: 22 sites have been unblocked in 12 countries, including Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. RSF offers grants to journalists at risk and supports media workers in need of refuge and protection.

To mark World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March 2020, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) unveiled a list of 20 Digital Predators of Press Freedom and announced that it is unblocking access to a total 21 websites in the sixth year of its Operation Collateral Freedom.

On 21 April 2020, the RSF based in Paris said that the pandemic had amplified and highlighted many crises and over shadowed freedom of the press. The high representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, stated that the pandemic should not be used to justify the limitation of democratic and civil freedoms and that the rule of law and international commitments should be respected. He said freedom of speech and access to information should not be limited and that measures taken against the pandemic should not be used to restrict human rights advocates, reporters, media staff and institutions of civil societies.

On 22 December 2023, RSF filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court over the killing of seven Palestinian journalists, including Samer Abu Daqqa.

In March 2025 the release of four journalists were named by RWB as one of that year's priority campaign. They were Frenchie Mae Cumpio of the Philippines, Sandra Muhoza of Burundi, Sevinj Vagifgizi of Azerbaijan and Phạm Đoan Trang of Vietnam.

Prizes

Press Freedom Prize

RSF's annual Press Freedom Prize, created in 1992, honours courageous and independent journalists who have faced threats or imprisonment for their work and who have challenged the abuse of power. TV5Monde and Le Monde have previously been partners in the prize.

In 2018, RSF launched new categories for the Press Freedom Prize: courage, independence and impact.

In 2023, RSF introduced the photojournalism prize called Lucas Dolega-SAIF Photo Prize, a tribute to Lucas Dolega, a young photographer killed in 2011, and supported from the outset by the Society of Authors of Visual Arts and Still Images (SAIF).

In 2024, RSF introduced the Mohamed Maïga Prize for African Investigative Journalism, which honours the memory of the Malian investigative journalist and his fight to uphold social justice in Africa through his writing.

Winners:


Netizen Prize

RSF's Netizen Prize was introduced in 2010, in partnership with Google, recognising individuals, including bloggers and cyber-dissidents, who have advanced freedom of information online through investigative reporting or other initiatives.

Press freedom predator list

RSF has also listed the world's worst press freedom 'predators' in 2001, 2009-11, 2013, 2016, and 2021.

2026 World Press Freedom Index Good Satisfactory Problematic Difficult Very serious Not classified
2026 World Press Freedom Index Good Satisfactory Problematic Difficult Very serious Not classified

03Publications

In addition to its country, regional and thematic reports, RSF publishes a photography book 100 Photos for Press Freedom as a tool for advocacy and a fundraiser. The organization says it raised nearly a quarter of its funds in 2018 from book sales.

Annual reports

RSF issues a report annually. RSF said that 110 journalists were killed in the course of their work in 2015. In 2016, RSF stated that, there were 348 imprisoned journalists and 52 hostages. Nearly two-thirds of imprisoned journalists were in Turkey, China, Syria, Egypt and Iran. RSF's 2018 report stated that over 80 journalists were killed, 348 were currently imprisoned, and another 60 were being held hostage.

Cumhuriyet's former editor-in-chief Can Dündar receiving the 2015 RSF Prize. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested.
Cumhuriyet's former editor-in-chief Can Dündar receiving the 2015 RSF Prize. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested.

04Recognitions

RSF has received multiple international awards honouring its achievements:

RWB 2011 Netizen Prize
RWB 2011 Netizen Prize
Watch videos about Reporters Without BordersExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Reporters Without Borders”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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