Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders announced this week that its secretary-general Jean-François Julliard will step down on 31 January, in order to take up a role as director-general of Greenpeace France.

According to the announcement from RSF, “the organisation’s board of governors is currently looking for a replacement”.

Until they find a successor for Julliard, who was first appointed to the position in 2008, the organisation’s current representative in Brussels, Olivier Basille, will cover the role.

In a statement Julliard said:

I am leaving Reporters Without Borders at a time when it is in good shape. I have been pleased with what we have achieved recently. The development of our cyber-censorship unit and our repositioning as a press freedom NGO in both France and Europe have been important changes for our organisation.

We have just opened a bureau in Tunisia for the first time and we are soon going to reinforce our activities in Libya. I hope that this development at the international level will continue. Reporters Without Borders will have more exciting challenges to face.

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In a report on three journalists being arrested within days of each other in Rwanda, Reporters Without Borders describes the “extreme vulnerability” of the press in the country. According to the RSF report two of the reporters have since been released, but one is still being held.

“This series of arrests has again highlighted the extreme vulnerability of journalists in Rwanda,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call on the authorities to publicly explain why these journalists have been held, and to release the third one immediately. We also urge the government to move forward with its proposed reform of the press law, which hopefully will protect journalists from arbitrary arrest and detention.”

Read the RSF report on the arrests here.

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Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has urged authorities in Iraq to reconsider the closure of radio station Al-Sada, reportedly the only independent broadcaster in the Al-Qadisiya province.

At the weekend RSF reported that the station was closed down because of music “contrary to local morality”, but that the local branch of the Iraqi journalists’ union had warned that the decision “violated freedom of the press as guaranteed by the constitution”.

Its representative stressed that such a move was unprecedented in Iraqi justice and warned of the dangers that it might present for the media industry.

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A Bahraini blogger has been handed a life sentence, another has received 15 years in prison, according to Reporters Without Borders.

The two were among 21 activists to be accused of belonging to terrorist organisations and trying to overthrow the government, the pressure group says on its site.

Blogger Abduljalil Al-Singace was handed a life sentence; Ali Abdulemam, who was tried in absentia, was given 15 years, Global Voices, an international bloggers network Abdulemam contributes to, also reports on the sentencing.

“The only crime committed by Abdulemam and Al-Singace was freely expressing opinions contrary to those of the government,” Reporters Without Borders said in its post. “These sentences, handed down at the end of trial that flouted defence rights, are typical of the intransigence that the authorities have been showing towards those identified as government opponents, who have borne the full brunt of their repression. The international community must call the government to account on its strategy of stifling all dissent.”

Singace was rearrested on 16 March after being held from September to February. He was previously arrested in 2009 for allegedly trying to destabilise the government because of articles posted on his blog.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Abdulemam is regarded as one of Bahrain’s internet pioneers and is an active member of Bahrain Online, a pro-democracy forum that gets more than 100,000 visitors a day despite being blocked within Bahrain. He was also detained from September to February but avoided being rearrested and has been in hiding for several months.

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Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports that a journalist, Valério Nascimento, was shot and killed in Brazil on Tuesday. The day of the shooting was also the day the world shone a light on the dangers and issues facing journalists across the world, for World Press Freedom day.

“Nascimento’s murder, which took place on World Press Freedom Day, is a reminder that Brazil is still a dangerous country for journalists despite recent legislative progress and efforts to combat impunity,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He is the second journalist to have been gunned down this year while a third journalist, a blogger, only just survived a murder attempt.”

A motive of the shooting is not yet known, RSF added, urging investigators of the case to “carefully examine the possibility that he was killed in connection with his work as a journalist”.

See the full report here…

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Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has published what it alleges to be a document issued to Chinese news organisations by the country’s Propaganda Department.

The directives in the document were reportedly delivered only via word of mouth to journalists at meetings where note-taking was banned.

The document (Chinese language) reportedly bans the coverage of a number of contentious issues in China, including: “the property market, rising prices, corruption, the demolition of housing and compulsory relocation, residence permits, the absence of social security, inadequate transport during the Chinese New Year and popular discontent that finds expression in anti-government demonstrations.”

RSF has accused the Chinese Propaganda Department of placing the country’s media within an “editorial straitjacket”.

Nobody from RSF was available to comment on when, or from whom it obtained the document.

Nobody from the Chinese Embassy press office, London was available to comment on the report.

Full RSF post at this link.

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At the end of last year Reporters Without Borders published the details of the financial aid it had provided to journalists and the media in 2010.

In total it paid out 226 assistance grants to media workers, which it claims were to assist in areas such as helping journalists in exile, paying medical bills, providing financial support to families, purchasing equipment and paying lawyers fees.

The vast majority of aid, 55.6 per cent, was awarded in Iran, which which with China has the joint highest number of imprisoned journalists at 34, as of last December. Africa and Asia were 2nd and 3rd, with 17.3 and 10.2 per cent respectively.

The grants are made possible in part by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), of which Reporters Without Borders is a beneficiary.

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OK, we know it’s quality not quantity that counts, but it’s still fascinating (to us at least) to learn which stories have attracted the most traffic over the course of a year.

Unsurprisingly, Wikileaks is prominent as was the televised leaders debate during the general election. And some old faithfuls continue to pull in traffic from jobseekers and ‘wannabe’ freelancers (this year that was probably mostly unemployed journalism graduates and recently ‘redundant’ journalists).

But stories about paywalls failed to even come close…

News:

1. Reporters Without Borders to host mirror site for WikiLeaks
2. Julian Assange: Financial threats to WikiLeaks are serious
3. Sky News defends Kay Burley’s interview treatment of 38 Degrees director
4. New tools for Sky journalists as social media strategy moves from one to many
5. Dates announced for UK leaders’ election debates on Sky, BBC and ITV

Features:

1. How to: Get started as a freelance journalist
2. Daniell Morrisey: How to prepare a killer CV
3. Daniell Morrisey: How to make the most of work experience
4. How to: find contacts and information about people online
5. How to: write the perfect press release for journalists

Blog posts:

1. Ten things every journalist should know in 2010
2. Wikileaks releases video showing Apache shooting of Reuters news staff
3. The 100 most influential news media Twitter accounts
4. Are you on the j-list? The leading innovators in journalism and media in 2010
5. ‘A real free press for the first time in history’: WikiLeaks editor speaks out in London

Source: Google Analytics

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has posted the findings of an annual report by its partner organisation Journalist in Danger (JED) on press freedom in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was published on Friday – International Human Rights Day.

The report records the details of every known “attack on the right to be informed and to inform the public” throughout the year. It claims there were 87 cases this year, an increase on the 75 recorded in 2009.

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News broke at the end of last week that a slander verdict delivered last month against Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov has been overturned.

Beketov, who was left handicapped in 2008 by a beating thought to be provoked by his reporting, was convicted of defamation and fined in November.

But on Friday it was widely reported that a Russian court had overturned the verdict. Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders said it welcomes the decision.

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Last week Journalism.co.uk reported that journalist and Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas had been awarded the European Parliament’s Sakharov human rights prize for 2010. In his battle against violations of free speech Fariñas has carried out more than 20 hunger strikes, according to the European Parliament, including a four month strike which ended in July this year.

Today Reporters Without Borders published an interview with Fariñas, with his responses translated into English, where he discusses his feelings on being awarded the prize, the current situation in Cuba and the challenges for independent journalists in the country.

We have no Internet. We have no Internet connection. Most of the Cuban population does not have an Internet connection either. But, for example, I have ten memory cards and everything we write, I give it to a university academic. And this academic circulates the memory cards throughout the university and people fill them up, they fill them up. As a result, people are beginning to think, and that is important. But thanks to universities that have Internet access, such as Havana University, when you travel by train or car or bus, suddenly people tell you, “I know you,” or “I liked that article by you” or “I have it here.” It is incredible. Because technology undermines dictatorships.

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An Iranian journalist and blogger has been sentenced to almost 20 years in prison and a five-year ban on working in politics or journalism upon his release, after being accused of managing an “obscene website” by Iranian authorities.

Hossein Derakhshan, who has dual citizenship in Iran and Canada and reportedly previously studied in London, was convicted yesterday of “collaborating with hostile governments, committing blasphemy and propaganda against the Islamic Republic, and managing an obscene website”, according to a report by Al Jazeera.

Reporting on the ruling, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said the sentence was the longest to have ever been made against a blogger in the country.

He is the victim of political rivalry within the government and the case against him was fabricated. We urge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to intercede personally in order to obtain his release without delay.

Derakhshan defended the Islamic Revolution’s principles, supported Ahmadinejad’s policies and returned to Iran from Canada after being assured by people close to the president that he would not be arrested. Canada and the rest of the international community must press for this harsh sentence to be quashed and for Derakhshan to be freed at once.

Derakhshan can appeal the decision, according to reports. A petition has been launched calling for his release.

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Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has “reaffirmed” its support for WikiLeaks, following their publication of an open letter to the whisteblowing site accusing it of being irresponsible in its publication of the Afghanistan war logs.

RSF says its criticisms of the way the material was made public do not mean it supports any kind of censorship of the group, an “unfair accusation” it claims has been made by online papers reporting the story.

We reaffirm our support for WikiLeaks, its work and its founding principles. It is thanks in large part to WikiLeaks that the world has seen the failures of the wars waged by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan (…) A media is responsible for what it publishes or disseminates. To remind it of that is not to wish its disappearance. Quite the contrary.

See their full post here…

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Press freedom groups have condemned a decision by the Afghan government to close down privately-owned TV station Emroz.

According to a BBC report, the government closed down the station which is owned by MP Najibulla Kabuli for allegedly fueling religious tensions.

The Committee to Protect Journalists urged the government to put the station back on air while Reporters Without Borders added that the move breaks media law.

The government must not under any circumstances violate the media law, which gives the media commission sole decision-making authority when a media commits an offence. We call on the government to rescind these decisions and never interfere in the content of Afghan TV stations again.

See the RWB full post here…

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Three journalists thought to have been kidnapped in Mexico have been freed according to national reports, while one remains missing.

Journalism.co.uk reported on industry calls for the safe release of four journalists who went missing on Monday after covering a demonstration taking place outside a prison.

Police have now reportedly announced that two cameramen, Javier Canales and Alejandro Hernandez, were freed over the weekend while another journalist, Hector Gordoa, was freed on Friday. It remains unclear whether the three men were released by their captors or rescued by security forces.

Reporters Without Borders said the country is one of the deadliest in the world for journalists.

We are very relieved to learn to learn that cameramen Jaime Canales of TV Milenio and Alejandro Hernández of Televisa have been freed and our thoughts are with reporter Oscar Solís of El Vespertino, who is still being held. The war between the drug cartels and the authorities is wreaking havoc in Mexico and journalists are being targeted with increasing frequency. Those responsible for killing journalists take advantage of the prevailing impunity, which is fuelling the violence.

A total of 67 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000 and 11 have gone missing since 2003. In the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Mexico was ranked 137th out of 175 countries.

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