The organisation’s accounts were healthy in 2006, following the reform of its statutes (in 2004) and its 20th anniversary (2005).
The combined income of Reporters Without Borders and Reporters Without Borders International was €3,923,429, up 3% on 2005. Expenditure rose 2%, to €3,868,544.
This produced a surplus of €56,080, after deduction of €250,000 to pay for buying and doing up premises for new headquarters in Paris and of €250,000 to support journalists in the former USSR, Asia and Latin America (in addition to funds allocated to this in 2005).
(2006 accounts)
Our main activity is research and publicity that enables us to expose press freedom violations and lobby the international media to help free imprisoned journalists, bring out newspapers that have been censored elsewhere and ensure that those guilty of serious crimes against journalists are punished.
Research involves gathering and analysing information about worldwide press freedom violations, sending on-the-spot fact-finding missions and monitoring the plight of journalists in prison.
Whenever press freedom is seriously threatened in a country, we send assistance and fact-finding missions that look at working conditions for journalists, investigate cases of imprisoned or murdered journalists and meet with the local authorities.
(missions)
An assistance fund provides urgent medical, legal and financial help to journalists and media outlets in difficulty.
(assistance fund)
Publicity involves informing the public and putting pressure on governments that abuse the right to report the news and people’s right to know it.
(publicity campaigns)
Two annual publications, the worldwide report on press freedom and the country index of press freedom, measure the extent of freedom journalists and media have. They have become important reference books for everyone concerned with these issues.
Three books of photographs were brought out in 2006 - for World Press Freedom Day (in May), the World Football Cup (June) and Jailed Journalists Support Day (November).
(publications)
Greatly increased operating costs were due to the first-time inclusion in the accounts of inventory losses and to the contribution of the French branch to Reporters Without Borders International (€225,000 compared with only €500 in 2005).
(action taken in 2006)
Self-generated funding
This rose to €2,154,299, 15% more than in 2005, and was 57% of all Reporters Without Borders income (up from 54% in 2005).
It came from:
Sales of three books of photographs and (at the end of the year) three calendars - 77% of self-generated funding (and 5% up on 2005). Combined sales of the books were 200,000 copies in the 2006-07 accounting period, with the popularity of the Studio Harcourt book (90,000 copies in 2006-07) making up for slightly below-average sales of the earlier Gilles Caron and World Cup books.
Advertising in the three books of photographs (19%). Its growth was the main reason for the increase in self-generated funds.
Special events, such as auctions to raise money for the organisation.
Private donors
Continuing donations by French and foreign private institutions enabled us to complete the purchase of premises for a new headquarters in 2007 by providing €250,000 for this purpose. Sanofi Aventis again showed its strong commitment to defending press freedom with a gift of €600,000 to pay for production of a special limited edition of the Studio Harcourt book of photos and to fund the wall newspaper Qui-Vive! We also received donations from Benetton, the French distribution firm CFAO and the Zeta Group, which awarded Reporters Without Borders its Antonio Asensio Prize.
Donations by private foundations (the Soros Fondation, the Center for a Free Cuba, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Fondation de France) decreased slightly as a result of some projects (such as the Handbook for Bloggers and reproduction of the paper De Cuba) being discontinued.
Private donors accounted for 24% of the combined income of Reporters Without Borders in 2006, down from 27% in 2005.
Public grants
These fell very slightly, to 9% of total income (from 10% in 2005). The money came from the French prime minister’s office, the French foreign ministry and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Some partners give us vital help in kind:
The Reporters Without Borders books of photographs rely on a network of partners:
The French NMPP, SNDP and UNDP press distributors, the Relay chain and Interforum Editis distribute the books free of charge, and France Rail, AAP and Insert handle promotion.
France Loisirs sells the books of photos to its members without taking a commission, through its network of bookshops and its catalogue.
The Fnac, Carrefour, Casino, Monoprix and Cora supermarkets, the Internet websites alapage.com, fnac.com and amazon.fr, along with A2Presse and more than 300 bookshops in France sell them.
The Saatchi & Saatchi agency designs and conducts all our media campaigns.
Many media outlets give us great help by providing free publicity for our media campaigns throughout the year.
(2005 accounts)
