Founded in 1985, Reporters Without Borders / Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) is the largest press freedom organization in the world, with over 150 correspondents across the globe investigating in 130 countries.
This chapter of Reporters Without Borders USA was founded in 2016. We aim to raise awareness among our peers of press freedom issues all over the world, but we are not official spokespersons of Reporters Without Borders.
The main work of the chapter of Reporters Without Borders USA is to assist Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its main goals, which are:
- Defending journalists and media assistants imprisoned or persecuted for doing their job and exposing the mistreatment and torture of them in many countries.
- Fighting against censorship and laws that undermine press freedom.
- Giving financial aid each year to journalists or media outlets in difficulty (to pay for lawyers, medical care and equipment) as well as to the families of imprisoned journalists.
- Working to improve the safety of journalists, especially those reporting in war zones.
In some countries a journalist can be thrown in prison for years for a single offending word or photo. Jailing or killing a journalist removes a vital witness to events and threatens the right of all of us to be informed.
Reporters Without Borders at IU meets every two weeks on Monday evenings.