Reporters Without Borders is concerned about a “trend” towards “denigration of public media”

This “trend (is) on a European, even global, scale”, underlines the editorial director of RSF in reaction to the crisis the BBC is going through after a misleading montage of a speech by Donald Trump.

“Today, there is a challenge of strengthening public media which are key in the information ecosystem”underlines, Friday November 14 on France Inter, Anne Bocandé, editorial director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in reaction to the threats made by Donald Trump towards the BBC. The president of the British channel apologized to the American president on Thursday while refuting accusations of defamation, after the broadcast of a misleading montage of a speech by Donald Trump broadcast in November 2024.

“The political interference part” of this affair, worries RSF. For Anne Bocandé, “what happened there allowed some to attack public media even more and take advantage of this to amplify the denigration of public media, or even to call into question their functioning”. The editorial director of RSF believes that this “denigration of public media” is a “trend on a European, even global scale”.

On the occasion of RSF’s 40th anniversary on Saturday, celebrated during a festival at the Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, Anne Bocandé recalls that the challenges remain numerous for press freedom. She particularly emphasizes “the extent of the abuses committed against journalists”. There are also 500 journalists locked up around the world “for doing their job”including Frenchman Christophe Gleizes, detained in Algeria.

Freedom of the press, she said, “it’s being able to work without being worried, we’re talking about physical security, an economic framework, the question of trust, disinformation”. “Without freedom of the press, there is no freedom at all”recalls Anne Bocandé.