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Reporters Without Borders - A U.S. propaganda tool of media
Reporters Without Borders - A U.S. propaganda tool of media
14/5/16
The annual Press Freedom Index
produced by Reporters without Borders (RSF) was issued on April 20th,
2016 according to their official website https://rsf.org/en.
Guess what countries would the international Non-Government Organization (NGO)
declare the worst for press freedoms? No question North Korea, Syria, China and
Vietnam were be on top of the list along with Washington’s traditional enemies
including Cuba, Russia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela etc. Granted they are
problems within every country in the world when it comes to freedom of the
press.
However, the U.S. ranked 49th in
the 2015 Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders (RWB) also known as
Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) due to its pursuit of Wiki leaks founder Julian
Assange and the persecution of New York Times reporter Jim Risen in connection
with Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer and whistleblower who was on trial
and convicted of charges under the Espionage Act for giving Mr. Risen
classified government information.
Since then, there have been a number of new cases of
government censorship that deserves international attention. For example, the
censorship of the documentary film ’Vaxxed: from Cover-Up to
Catastrophe’ that was supposed to air in the Tribeca Film Festival in
New York City by the Medical establishment who is influential in Washington is
an issue Reporters without Borders should consider. Mike Adams, publisher and
editor of Natural News wrote an article on the censorship committed by the
medical establishment and said “The censorship of medical truth has
reached a fever pitch as books, films and documentaries are now being
maliciously attacked and censored in a desperate ploy to prevent the public
from learning the truth about cancer, vaccines, antidepressant drugs and more.” The
documentary film is based on the research done by Dr. Andrew Wakefield who
discovered a link between the controversial MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella)
vaccine and the rise of autism in children. Another case was in the U.S. state
of Arizona which has banned reporters from the floor who refuse background
checks is now required by law. According to the ‘Arizona Capital
Times,’ the state house has “banned reporters from the floor
who would not consent to extensive background checks.” The report
confirmed the move by State House leaders who claim the new law is to keep
politicians “safe”: Several media organizations who routinely cover the
Legislature, including the Associated Press, the Arizona Republic, the Capitol
Times and Capitol Media Services were denied the traditional access after
refusing to sign documents allowing House staff to check not just criminal
history records but all civil records, driving records and other public records.
Arizona’s new law bans journalists for the safety of
politicians are an excuse to limit free speech and reporting on corrupt
politicians. The Arizona Capital Times went on to say the new
law is extreme “but the policy went beyond the checks, listing specific
criminal offenses that would automatically disqualify a reporter from having
floor privileges, including misdemeanor offenses like trespass.” Does
the state of Arizona have corrupt politicians that travel at the expense of
Arizona taxpayers? The report mentioned the speaker of the house Republican
David Gowan “Speaker David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, said it was not
targeting the media but about keeping lawmakers safe. He cited a disturbance
last week, not at the press tables in the secure area of the House but in the
public gallery.” Hank Stephenson’s report on state paid travel
expenses paints a different story altogether:
Rep. Reginald Bolding, D-Laveen,
suggested that the new regulations have less to do with security than with the
discomfort of some lawmakers with what reporters have been writing. And that,
he said, includes reports on state-paid travel. That is a reference to an
extensive story earlier this year by Hank Stephenson of the Arizona Capitol
Times about Gowan’s travels at state expense, much of it in the congressional
district where he wants to get elected. Gowan eventually had to repay the House more than $12,000. Ginger Lamb,
the paper’s publisher, noted the list of disqualifying crimes like rape and
assault also included trespass. And Stephenson has a 2014 conviction for
trespass, the result of a fight in Wickenburg. Lamb called the timing of the
speaker’s action “peculiar.”
“This new protocol would have an adverse effect on a member
of our reporting team that has written several stories that are critical of the
speaker’s leadership,” she said in a prepared statement. “I would hope this is
coincidence, but past experience leads me to believe otherwise”
Obviously, Mr. Gowan is upset that he had to repay $12,000
out of his own pocket, now he wants to ban reporters from the House floor as
payback. The State Press, a local news organization in Arizona
published a report titled “House measure limits free press, free speech,
free thought’ which stated “The legislation on its own teeters
on the line between a safety measure and censorship. But when you consider that
for 34 years, journalists have been granted access to the House floor without a
hiccup, it leans closer toward suppression than security.”
The First Amendment in the Bill of Rights has been deemed
non-existent in Arizona by restricting journalists in the House floor should
allow the U.S. to slip even further down the list in the 2016 Press Freedom
Index if RWB is serious about the freedom of the press.
RWB is usually biased towards nations who Washington and
Europe deem uncooperative. It is a red flag for an organization that is
supposed to be neutral since it’s an international NGO, but geopolitics
play an important part when a nation’s freedom of the press is criticized by
the West for propaganda purposes. Global Research contributor F. William
Endghal wrote an article in 2010 titled: ‘The “Evil Guys List”? “Free
Journalism” in the Service of US Foreign Policy: The Role of Reporters without
Borders” questioned who is behind the organization:
The most interesting question is
not the deeds of Hu Jintao or Putin or Ahmadinejad in the last year in relation
to their national press, but rather who is judging these leaders. We might well
ask, “Who judges the judges?” The answer is, Washington. Reporters Without
Borders is an international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). According to
its website it is headquartered in Paris, France. Paris is a curious home base
for an organization that, as it turns out, is financed by the US Congress and
by agencies tied to the US government.
If we go to the RWB website to
find who stands behind these self-anointed judges of world press freedom, we
find nothing. Not even their board of directors are named, let alone their financial
backers. Their annual published Income and Expenditure statements give no clue
who stands behind them financially
RWB’s former Secretary General Robert Menard admitted that
the budget for the organization was provided by “US organizations
strictly linked with US foreign policy.” So which U.S. organization is
linked with Washington’s foreign policy? The National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) of course, which has funded the international NGO who criticizes
Washington’s enemies when it comes to the freedom of the press. Endgahl
mentions a ZNET article written by Diana Barahona’s in 2006 titled ‘Reporters
Without Borders and Washington’s Coups’ on the NED’s funding of RWB
which was denied by its executive director Lucie Morillon at the time:
As one researcher found after
months of trying to get a reply from NED about their funding of Reporters
Without Borders, which included a flat denial from RSF executive director Lucie
Morillon, the NED revealed, according to Diana Barahona writing in Znet that
Reporters Without Borders received grants over at least three years from the
International Republican Institute. The IRI is one of four subsidiaries of NED.
An IRI spokesperson has denied IRI funding the RWB
The 2016 Press Freedom Index listed U.S. AS 41st,
a rankings in a “not so bad” category to show the international community that
they are neutral, but that is just a facade. Governments targeted for “Regime
Change” will be on top of the list as the worst for press freedoms
including Syria, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Ecuador, Cuba and Vietnam. The
Press Freedom Index serves as a propaganda tool to demonize countries that are
not subservient to Washington’s interests. Reporters Without Borders should be
seen in the same category as the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists who recently produced ‘The Panama Papers’ and that is a paid
propaganda mouthpiece for Washington. RWB has a purpose and that is to provide
ammunition to criticize censorship by governments not subservient to Washington
for the most sophisticated propaganda machine in modern history, the U.S.
mainstream media./.
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All comments [ 12 ]
It is a red flag for an organization that is supposed to be neutral since it’s an international NGO, but geopolitics play an important part when a nation’s freedom of the press is criticized by the West for propaganda purposes.
RWB is usually biased towards nations who Washington and Europe deem uncooperative.
RWB has a purpose and that is to provide ammunition to criticize censorship by governments not subservient to Washington for the most sophisticated propaganda machine in modern history, the U.S. mainstream media.
The international journalists' organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has many times been accused of receiving money from the US state department and Cuban exile groups and of pursuing a political agenda.
Don't interfere with other countries' affairs!
It is very dangerous when press freedom organisations get themselves politically compromised by accepting payment from any government. It is really vital that all such organisations are truly independent.
A look at the Report on Press Freedom, released by Reporters without Borders, we can easily see a strong pro-Western bias.
The “watch-dog” however, never replied, let alone provided the information requested.
Yeah, it always fails to respond to nsnbc international’s request to provide details about the exact methodology it uses for its evaluation of press freedom or how the organization defines what a free press is.
As long as Reporters without Borders lacks transparency with regard to its methodology, the best advise how to rank the organization’s ranking method is “follow the money”.
Adding an alleged media watchdog like Reporters without Borders into the equation while the organization refuses to answer questions about its methodology is adding insult to injury for independent journalists and media, everywhere.
We live in a dangerous world where the reality is more and more constructed by the media and the media is losing its independence to governments or big corporations more and more everyday.
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