RSF rolls out priority campaigns for 2025, tackling current threats to press freedom and the right to reliable information
A significant portion of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) activity revolves around mobilisation campaigns conducted at every level of the NGO. Through advocacy, assistance, editorial production, special projects and communications work, RSF alerts decision-makers and the public to key issues facing press freedom and the right to reliable information. In 2025, RSF is strengthening its commitment to protecting environmental journalism, supporting exiled media professionals and fighting the cyberharassment of reporters in India. RSF will also continue pushing for the release of imprisoned journalists, including this year's emblematic cases: Sevinj Vagifgizi (Azerbaijan), Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines), Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam) and Sandra Muhoza (Burundi).
"From criminal litigation to aid for journalists on the ground, from setting up crisis response programmes to unblocking censored websites, from dialogue with heads of state — including authoritarian regimes — to proposals for judicial standards that uphold journalism, RSF stood out in 2024 through its capacity for action and mobilisation. 2025 will be the year of new solutions and ways to mobilise. The launch of new priority campaigns is an integral part of our strategy to defend free, independent and pluralistic journalism and stand up for journalists and everyone’s right to reliable information."
After a year of impactful operations in 2024, RSF plans to continue in 2025 with around ten priority campaigns that confront the challenges facing journalism and the right to reliable information worldwide. RSF 2025 campaigns include: artificial intelligence and journalism; supporting journalists in conflict zones, such as the Sahel region, Ukraine and Gaza; upholding media pluralism and independence in France; and responding to the obstacles to press freedom posed by the new Trump presidency in the United States.
This year, RSF is also committing to strengthening joint actions on thematic campaigns:
- Supporting displaced and exiled journalists: In 2024, RSF allocated 70 per cent of its emergency funds to the relocation of persecuted journalists worldwide. This year, the NGO is launching a priority campaign to raise awareness and strengthen support for journalists who are forced to flee due to the dangerous threats to their lives.
- Fighting the mass harassment of journalists in India: Journalists are increasingly under threat, both online and offline. Cyber harassment, coordinated hate campaigns, trolls and deepfakes have become widespread tools to discredit journalists' work. In parallel, judicial harassment is frequently used as a weapon to silence these reporters. RSF is committed to investigating, exposing, and supporting these persecuted media professionals.
- Protecting environmental journalism: RSF recently revealed that more than half of the journalists killed in India over the past decade were covering environmental issues and that in the Amazon, reporters investigating environmental topics face heightened risks. RSF aims to strengthen the protection and reporting abilities of journalists working on these critical issues. The NGO will also push for environmental journalism and the fight against disinformation to be central issues in the commitments that will be made at COP 30, which will take place in Brazil in November.
Women journalists under threat
Beyond these thematic campaigns, RSF has also expanded its list of priority cases which, for the first time in its history, is exclusively comprised of women journalists.
- Sevinj Vagifgizi (Azerbaijan): The case of Sevinj Vagifgizi, editor-in-chief of the anti-corruption investigative media Abzas Media, is emblematic of the recent wave of repression in Azerbaijan, which began on 20 November 2023. As President Ilham Aliyev consolidates his power following yet another fraudulent election, journalists and other critics of the regime risk being severely sanctioned in the coming months.
- Frenchie Mae Cumpio (Philippines): A 25-year-old journalist, Frenchie Mae Cumpio faces a 40-year prison sentence on false charges of "illegal possession of firearms" and "financing terrorism." Her case highlights the alarming practice of "red-tagging" in the Philippines, where journalists are labeled as subversive agents and even terrorists for covering topics deemed sensitive by the government.
- Pham Doan Trang (Vietnam): Journalist, blogger, and winner of a 2019 RSF Press Freedom Prize, Pham Doan Trang has been imprisoned since October 2020 and still has five out of nine years left to serve. She remains an inspiring symbol of resistance to Vietnam’s widespread repression, where 39 journalists are currently behind bars.
- Sandra Muhoza (Burundi): Detained since 13 April 2024, the journalist from the online media La Nova Burundi was sentenced in December 2024 to 21 months in prison. With elections approaching in May 2025, RSF calls on President Évariste Ndayishimiye — whose intervention led to the release of journalist Floriane Irangabiye in August 2024 — to take action for Sandra Muhoza’s freedom as well.
