Dear Friends,

As new threats to media freedom, especially technological ones, have emerged on the international stage, our advocacy and assistance team has continued its work and in some cases has even reinvented its work methods in order to combat the threats.

In 2023, we engaged in intense discussions with the Taliban authorities in order to obtain the release of Mortaza Behboudi, a journalist with French and Afghan dual nationality, in October. We filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court about war crimes against journalists in Palestine and Israel. And, after a fierce battle, we recently scored a major victory by getting a national security exception clause withdrawn from the proposed European Media Freedom Act.

In the field, we have provided financial assistance to 460 journalists in 63 countries in 2023, twice as many as in 2022. The emergency grants sent by RSF enable journalists to avoid imprisonment and sometimes even death by relocating to a safer place and, despite the threats, to keep making their voices heard either in their own country or from the country to which they have been able to flee.

We also trained nearly 2,000 journalists in 37 countries in physical and digital safety. And by installing our mirror sites, we restored access to the websites of independent media that are censored by governments. We did this yet again just last week, this time by creating a mirror of the BBC News Persian website, which the Islamic Republic of Iran had blocked.

These activities, which contribute in concrete ways to the defence of your right to news and information and to the defence of those who provide it, would not be possible without your generosity. You help us to keep saving the lives of endangered journalists and keep pressuring governments all over the world in order to protect reliable, independent reporting. New challenges await us in 2024 and we know that we can count on your support in order to face them.

I thank you warmly and wish you an excellent holiday season.