April 4, 2025
“We are very concerned about the future of the trade… the mission of informing people, providing reliable information.”
The director general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Thibaut Bruttin, sounded the alarm during a breakfast meeting with 14 members of the AAPA.
The conversation covered a broad range of concerns to journalists. US President Donald Trump, of course: “The most… dangerous action that was undertaken first by the Trump administration was to stop USAID,” Bruttin suggested. He noted that RSF collaborated with some VOA journalists to win a temporary restraining order, stopping further firings at VOA.
We also talked about media repression in Turkey, killings of journalists in Gaza, efforts to get the voices of Ukrainian and dissident Russian journalists out there, and worries about the influence of the far right in France.
just a few weeks ahead of the release of the body’s World Press Freedom Index on May 2, Thibaut Bruttin was also keen to stress that a free press isn’t the same as free speech: “It’s about the people’s ability to receive reliable information as well,” he said.
photos by Thomas Haley