Imprisoned Journalists Speak out from Behind Bars in RSF’s New Campaign for Press Freedom

An estimated 581 journalists are imprisoned around the world today: for the crime of simply doing their jobs. They are unjustly behind bars for exposing corruption, calling out injustices, and holding states and regimes to account. That’s why NGO RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has partnered with cult French biweekly magazine Society on a new campaign to demonstrate the importance of press freedom. Produced by BETC Paris, The Prison Papers is the world’s first magazine issue developed together with imprisoned journalists. With freedom of the press under increasing threat, the issue has made the impossible possible, finally giving incarcerated journalists a voice – even from within their cells. 

The special issue focuses on eight journalists incarcerated across four continents, and a series of articles that together present a powerful plea for freedom. These articles range from direct interviews with imprisoned journalists from inside their own cell, to a profile on an estranged journalist whose whereabouts are completely unknown. In a critical year for democracy, the campaign aims to highlight the importance of independent journalism in thwarting disinformation, corruption, and propaganda. From Hong Kong to Cameroon, and Guatemala to India, these articles paint a tumultuous portrait on the state of press freedom.

RSF worked with a team of writers from pioneering editorial platform Society to uncover these stories, undertaking extraordinary risks to help these prisoners to exercise the right for which they were imprisoned in the first place: to get the truth out there.

Nine months in the making, The Prison Papers is the latest in a long line of powerful and thought-provoking campaigns that RSF uses to draw the public’s and international community’s attention to violations of the freedom to inform.

The result serves as a stark reminder of the impunity of the regimes stifling freedom of information today. The message it sends is that you can jail the journalist, but you can never jail the truth. 

“This campaign was the result of a long and challenging process to achieve something incredibly important, which had never been done before: giving back voices to journalists who had been silenced. Society's editorial team has put itself at their service by designing this special issue for and with them, a symbol of their unwavering commitment to freedom of press.” said Olivier Aumard, executive creative director, BETC Paris.

“With an unprecedented number of journalists behind bars around the world, it is more crucial than ever that we find new and creative ways of keeping their stories alive. We are so pleased to partner with Society on this innovative project, lending our voices to some of the most emblematic figures of our time, whom powerful forces have tried so hard to silence. We hope seeing their stories in print will spur the world into action to secure their releases and to stop the relentless targeting of journalists once and for all,” said Rebecca Vincent, director of campaigns for Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Campaigner.

BETC, RSF and Society worked together to connect the magazine’s editorial team with imprisoned journalists on every continent, interviewing their relatives, family members, lawyers, or contacts in prison to create the stories their fellow journalists wanted to be told – but were unable to write themselves – through a lengthy process of consultation, investigation, writing, and approval.

Articles include an investigation into the unknown fate of Eritrean-Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak, currently serving the world’s longest prison sentence for a journalist in the infamously closed-off state of Eritrea, alongside an interview with “Guatemala’s most famous prisoner”, José Ruben Zamora Marroquin, on the rise and fall of the revolutionary El Periodico newspaper and a Q&A from Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, currently incarcerated in Tehran. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Ressa, who is the founder of investigative news site, Rappler, is interviewed about press freedom and her fight to protect journalists, and how social networks are making her profession more dangerous.

The campaign is a stark reminder of the importance of independent journalism and a call to action to protect the right to be informed - or lose it altogether. 

The special edition of Society magazine containing the Prison Papers is now available in both French and English, and can now be viewed here.