For Reporter Without Borders, “Press Freedom is the Price for Democracy”

For you, access to information costs one click. In China, it would have cost a journalist seven years in jail”. This is the message you will currently find on the New York Times website as well as on USATODAY.com.

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization advocating press freedom, defending journalists imprisoned or persecuted for doing their job and exposing the mistreatment and torture of them in many countries, is launching a national campaign, entitled: “Press Freedom is the Price for Democracy.”

According to the organization, it is meant to inform the American public about the injustices committed against the press. The goal is to show every time a member of the press is killed or censored, citizens are deprived of important information. At least, in the last fifteen years, getting the news has cost the lives of 850 reporters.

As part of the campaign, Reporters Without Borders posted a YouTube video, “Shot for News?!” featuring a young woman in the streets of New York, seconds later a man standing by a newspaper stand is shot multiple times. The message goes like this: Unlike many other countries, getting the news here will never cost a life. RWB recently released its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which measures the degree of freedom journalists have in 175 countries. Currently, more than 200 reporters and media assistants are jailed worldwide. 91 cyberdissidents are behind bars because of their online work. To see how your country ranks on press freedom:
http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html

Newspapers across the country have also been asked to donate free space for print or online advertisements to publicize the message to the greater public.

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