Dear Friends,

On World Day Against Cyber Censorship, which is celebrated on 12 March, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) unveiled the latest figures from its Operation Collateral Freedom, which is now unblocking online access to more than 100 banned media outlets in 32 countries, a 20% increase on last year. 

In recent months, Operation Collateral Freedom was extended to China with the result that a total of 18 censored Chinese news sites are now accessible there. Renowned Russian media such as Meduza and Moscow Times are also taking advantage of this mechanism to evade censorship by Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecoms regulator, which has stepped up its persecution of independent media. The operation is also reaching other countries hostile to press freedom such as Iran, where access to the BBC News Persian website has been unblocked.

To do this, RSF has created a total of 480 mirror sites, that is to say, exact copies of the blocked sites, which are placed on RSF servers and are constantly synched with the originals. Year by year, our Operation Collateral Freedom has established itself as one of the world’s biggest censorship circumvention operations. It is vital that we respond to the growth in online censorship and amplification of disinformation by making independent media more accessible in their countries of origin. 

Thank you for giving us the means to combat disinformation and circumvent online censorship throughout the world. Operation Collateral Freedom could not exist without your invaluable support.