FRANCAISReporters sans frontières - History
1990-1999
-1990, France: in the context of the controversial media coverage of the Gulf War and the mass graves of Timisoara in Romania, RSF follows two different directions. On the one hand, Robert Ménard insists on the defense of journalists. On the other hand, Rony Brauman and Jean-Claude Guillebaud want to encourage the profession to think about the way it uses or abuses its freedom. They focus on France, where a symposium on journalists’ ethics is organized with the Nouvel Observateur and the State Secretariat for Humanitarian Action in Paris in April 1990.
-1991-1992, France: RSF organizes its first World Press Freedom Day and publishes a yearbook on the issue. The organization gains increasing international support, with subsidies and a human rights prize granted by the European Union. In 1992, RSF and the Fondation de France create a yearly Reporters Without Borders Prize to reward the contribution of journalists to the freedom of the press in their country.
-1993-1995, France: Jean-Claude Guillebaud resigns from the association on the 9th of February 1993. He criticizes Robert Ménard’s objective to transform RSF into an organization exclusively devoted to the defence of journalists. He would have preferred to work on the ethics of the profession, particularly in the western press. On the 24th of January 1995, Rony Brauman also leaves RSF, in protest against personal management and the media tactics of the organization. Both Rony Brauman and Jean-Claude Guillebaud wanted to see RSF become a think-tank on the role of the media.
-1994, Rwanda: RSF and its Swiss branch disagree on a radio created in Kigali with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) in order to broadcast information on public health and peace against the pro-genocide Radio des Mille Collines. RSF-Switzerland wishes to continue the experience by promoting an alternative media, an option that Robert Ménard refuses to endorse. The Swiss personnel then resign and launch a new organization, the Hirondelle Foundation, which opens an office in Arusha, Tanzania, to monitor the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
