Reply #14: They also receive funding from the N.E.D.:

[Judi Lynn]

Reporters Without Borders received funding from NED
by Salim Lamrani, translated by Dana Lubow
Sunday May 29th, 2005 2:26 PM
After long denying it, Paris-based "Reporters Without Borders" finally admitted they receive payment from the US government's regime-change financing arm, National Endowment for Democracy (NED).


Rebelión

05-05-2005

The strong suspicions that have surrounded the dubious and tendentious
activities of Reporters without Borders (RSF) have not been without merit.
For many years, various critics have denounced the largely political
propagandistic actions of the Parisian entity, particularly with regards to
Cuba and Venezuela. The RSF's positions against the governments of Havana
and Caracas coincide perfectly with the political and media war that
Washington carries out against the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionaries.

Finally the truth has come to light. Mr. Robert Ménard, secretary general of
the RSF for twenty years, has confessed to receiving financing from the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization that depends on the
U.S. Department of State, whose principal role is to promote the agenda of
the White House for the entire world. Ménard was clear: ³We indeed receive
money from the NED. And that hasn¹t posed any problem.² (1)
(snip/...)

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/05/29/17447201.php

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Reporters Without Borders and Washington's Coups

by Diana Barahona and Jeb Sprague; CounterPunch; August 02, 2006

British press baron Lord Northcliff said, "News is something that someone, somewhere wants to keep secret, everything else is advertising." If this is true, then U.S. government funding of Reporters Without Borders must be news, because the organization and its friends in Washington have gone to extraordinary lengths to cover it up. In spite of 14 months of stonewalling by the National Endowment for Democracy over a Freedom of Information Act request and a flat denial from RSF executive director Lucie Morillon, the NED has revealed that Reporters Without Borders received grants over at least three years from the International Republican Institute.
The NED still refuses to provide the requested documents or even reveal the grant amounts, but they are identified by these numbers: IRI 2002-022/7270, IRI 2003-027/7470 and IRI 2004-035/7473. Investigative reporter Jeremy Bigwood asked Morillon on April 25 if her group was getting any money from the I.R.I., and she denied it, but the existence of the grants was confirmed by NED assistant to the president, Patrick Thomas.
(snip/...)

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=10692§ionID=21

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The impartiality of Reporters Without Borders is not universally accepted. A significant amount of funding (19% of total) comes from certain western governments and organisations.<2><3><4>However, RWB has openly criticized Western countries for their treatment of reporters (e.g. the United States' occupation of Iraq).

Some people sympathetic with Cuba are highly critical of an apparent RWB anti-Castro bias. Lucie Morillon, RWB's Washington representative, confirmed in an interview on 29 April 2005 that the organization receives money from the Washington-based Center for a Free Cuba ($50,000 in 2004), and that a contract with the US State Department's Special Envoy to the Western Hemisphere, Otto Reich, requires them to inform Europeans about repression against journalists in Cuba. However, the organisation has denied that its campaigning on the issue of Cuba - in declarations on radio and television, full-page ads in Parisian dailies, posters, leafletting at airports, and an April 2003 occupation of the Cuban tourism office in Paris - were related to the payments.<5> 1.3% of total funding come from this source.<2> In addition, RWB receives free publicity from Saatchi and Saatchi, a member of the world's fourth-largest marketing and public relations conglomerate, Publicis Groupe. It has been noted that a major Publicis client is Bacardi, which has been at the forefront of financing anti-Castro groups.<6> A judge stopped the organization from using a copyrighted image of Ernesto Che Guevara.<7> RWB has been described as an 'ultrareactionary' organization by the Cuban newspaper Granma.

Some critics find RWB's reporting of press freedom in Haiti during and after Jean-Bertrand Aristide presidency suspect, arguing that it is biased due funding from the United States.<8>

Reporters Without Borders have called on the US government to free two journalists it said were being unjustly held at a US prison in Iraq, and at the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.<9> However, some critics find it questionable that this was only mentioned in 2006. They also claim that RSF supported the invasion of Iraq, even celebrating the illegal bombing of the ministry of information, a civilian target, whitewashed the U.S. killing of Telecinco Cameraman Jose couso and Reuters Cameraman Taras Protsyuk, and have remained silent about about AP Journalist Bilal Hussein who has been imprisoned by occupation troops.<10> However, this is contradicted by statements made by the RSF.<11><12>
(snip/...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders