Reporters sans frontieres released its annual photo album on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, to raise funds to support its ongoing efforts to assist imprisoned journalists.

The 2003 album features the work of Philip Plisson, a marine photographer who has devoted most of his life to studying the sea, the French navy, and sailors. The album includes a collection of 84 of Plisson’s photographs, and a foreword by Jean-François Deniau of the Académie française.

RSF’s list of “press freedom predators,” which this year includes 43 names, is included in the album.

“Philip Plisson for Press Freedom” will be available for € 6 at newsstands, and is also available online from the RSF Web site www.rsf.org. The money raised will be used to finance the organization’s daily activities, such as providing financial aid to struggling journalists and media professionals, conducting investigations into potentially abusive treatment of journalists by a particular country’s authorities.

RSF also released on May 3 its annual report, documenting the status of press freedom in 156 countries. According to the group, 25 journalists and media professionals were killed in 2002 as a direct result of their work. The number of journalists detained for questioning jumped nearly 40 percent and the number of those assaulted or threatened has doubled since 2001.

The annual report will be made available, free of charge, on the RSF Web site.

For more information, visit RSF at www.rsf.org or contact them at 5 rue
Geoffroy-Marie, 75009 Paris, France.
Telephone 33 1 44 83 84 84. Fax 33 1 45 23 11 51.

(May 1, 2003)
Source: www.ijnet.org