RSF, Reporters sans frontières, based in Paris, France, is a non-profit & non-governmental international organization that supports and defends the right to freedom of information and freedom of expression. Its international offices are located in Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Madrid, Stockholm, Tripoli, Tunis, Vienna and Washington D.C.
Its advocacy role is rooted in the belief that everyone has the right to the news and information, inspired by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that recognizes 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.[2]
RSF works on the ground supporting individual journalists at risk and in life threatening situations and also at the highest levels of government and international forums. Their purpose is to defend the right to freedom of expression and information. Currently there are few countries except for places like Germany that exhibit well above average support of free access and free expression.
The RSF provides daily briefings and press releases on threats to media freedom in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Farsi 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
RSF unblocks 34 censored websites in 18 countries. How does RSF outsmart censorship?
“Collateral Freedom circumvents Internet censorship by means of a strategy in which “mirrors” or duplicates of the censored websites are created on international servers belonging to the world’s Internet giants. If a country wants to block access to the mirrors, it must also deprive itself of access to all the sites and services hosted on these servers, which would inflict significant “collateral damage” on its own economy.”
Read more at Reporters without Borders for the latest news and information.