The international journalists’ organisation Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has been accused of receiving money from the United States State Department and Cuban exile groups, and of pursuing a political agenda.
The claims of political bias, published in a report in Washington this week, were denied by the group on Wednesday.
RSF was set up in France in 1979 by Robert Menard, who still heads the organisation. It monitors abuses of journalists and has offices throughout the world.
Its website highlights countries where journalists are killed, jailed or intimidated as a result of their work, and currently features stories on Uzbekistan, The Gambia and Ukraine.
The attack on RSF came in reports published by the Washington-based non-profit organisation the Council on Hemispheric Affairs and the US Newspaper Guild journal. Both were written by journalist Diana Barahona.
She claimed that RSF is failing to follow the non-partisan example of Médécins sans Frontières and suggested that it is part of a ”neocon crusade against the Castro regime”. The reports suggested that RSF has highlighted Cuba rather than countries that are more dangerous for journalists, such as Colombia.
Barahona also claimed RSF is ”on the payroll of the US State Department” and has received money from the Centre for a Free Cuba, an exile group. The reports suggested that Menard has campaigned to have Cuban government accounts at European banks frozen in the same way as ”the bank accounts of terrorists”.
Jeff Julliard, of RSF, denied the allegations of a political agenda from its headquarters in Paris on Wednesday.
”We have no political agenda,” he said. ”We are not a political organisation.”
He also denied that RSF receives money from the US State Department directly, but confirmed that it has received a grant of $40 000 (about R250 000) from the conservative National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
The NED’s website states that it receives annual funding from ”the US Congress through the State Department”.
This money, he said, has been used exclusively for a project to help journalists threatened in Africa, and none of the money has been used elsewhere.
Julliard said RSF has also received money from the Centre for a Free Cuba and that money has been given to the families of journalists jailed in Cuba. Two-thirds of RSF’s funds come from the sales of photography books and the rest of its money is from private donors.
He added that, while Menard has called for the freezing of Cuban bank accounts in Europe, RSF has made similar calls regarding the accounts of other governments that mistreat journalists, such as Zimbabwe and Pakistan.
RSF believes that this is a legitimate tactic to put pressure on the authorities. He added that, while RSF is very critical of Cuba, it has published more reports about abuses in China. Its main current concern is the position of journalists in Iraq. It has also campaigned on the issue of protection of sources in the US.
Aidan White, of the International Federation of Journalists, based in Brussels, said on Wednesday: ”The RSF is a fantastically successful organisation in terms of exposing those governments that treat journalists in pretty nasty ways. You can only applaud their efforts and the more that is done the better.”
However, ”Sometimes there have been moments when our community and their network have not seen eye to eye. Sometimes there is not as much cooperation as there could be.”
A spokesperson for the National Union of Journalists in London said on Wednesday: ”It is very dangerous when press freedom organisations get themselves politically compromised by accepting payment from any government. It is really vital that all such organisations are truly independent.” — Guardian Unlimited Â