“A few decades ago, journalists were collateral victims, today they are kidnapped and deliberately beaten and that is what is unbearable,” said Thibaut Bruttin, Thursday on franceinfo.
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“It is about continuing the fight and perhaps also renewing the modes of action,” declared Thibaut Bruttin on Thursday, July 11 on franceinfo. The new director general of RSF, appointed Wednesday, succeeds Christophe Deloire, who had been at the head of Reporters Without Borders for twelve years and who died in June at the age of 53 from a fulminating cancer.
franceinfo: How do you approach this important mission?
Thibaut Bruttin: With confidence. Christophe Deloire’s legacy is very important both in terms of strategy but also of the human community that he managed to bring together around his project. It is about continuing the fight and perhaps also renewing the modes of action.
In a few words, what is RSF?
It is 150 collaborators in the world with 14 offices spread across the planet. There is a fight that is very clear which is for journalism in all its independence, in all its honesty and in all its pluralism. We are there for journalists but also for journalism.
The press seems more targeted than ever, is this a critical reality that the press faces today?
Freedom of the press is understood both as the freedom of journalists to work independently of any physical threat, but the economic, social, political and legal conditions are also very worrying. We are on all these fronts. In the years to come, we will have to show how multiple the fight is and that at the same time there are levers for action.
Is there more violence against journalists than before?
Violence against journalists is now the work of actors who target journalists. A few decades ago, journalists were collateral victims, today they are kidnapped and knowingly beaten and that is what is unbearable. In many territories now, it is not journalists who are targeted, it is journalism that is dying and I believe that on this subject there is a real revolution to be undertaken in the perception of the issues of journalism, we must mobilize collectively on these issues.
