Reporters Without Borders

Use of funding | Annual accounts

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The organisation’s finances in 2009 were mainly affected by:

 The loss of its main donor, which in 2008 provided more than €300,000 in funding, free advertising and partnership arrangements.

 The annual Human Dignity Award (€900,000) of the Roland Berger Foundation, won by Reporters Without Borders on 21 April 2009. The prize recognises people, associations and institutions working for human dignity and human rights. The sum will be paid in annual instalments of €300,000 until 2011.

 An austerity plan involving reduction of grants to Reporters Without Borders branches and closure of the London and Tokyo offices (saving €61,000), lower translation costs (down €67,000) and renegotiated telephone contracts (€15,000 saved).

 A €253,000 increase in assistance to journalists and support for independent media outlets thanks to two programmes with the European Union. This big rise was part of the €304,000 boost in funding from the EU in 2009.

Total income in 2009 was €4,041,465 and expenditure €4,053,174, making a deficit of €11,709 (down from a €129,336 shortfall in 2008). All figures here are based on budgetary execution to make them clearer and also easier to compare year-on-year. Detailed 2009 figures (balance sheet and P&L) are presented here.

The main work of Reporters Without Borders is research and publicity campaigns to expose media freedom violations and lobby the international media with the goal of freeing imprisoned journalists, helping censored papers to publish and ensuring those responsible for serious abuses against media workers are punished.

Research involves collecting and analysing information about media freedom violations around the world, organising fact-finding missions and monitoring the plight of journalists in prison.

When media freedom is seriously threatened in a country, Reporters Without Borders sends fact-finding and assistance missions to learn more about working conditions for the media there, investigate cases of imprisoned or murdered journalists and meet with the authorities.

The assistance fund enables us to give emergency medical, legal or material aid to journalists and media outlets in difficulty.

Publicity campaigns work to inform the public and put pressure on governments which do not respect to right to report the news and to be kept informed of events.

Two annual reports – the worldwide press freedom roundup and the press freedom index – measure the amount of freedom journalists and the media have. They have become key references for everyone concerned about this issue.

We published three books of photographs in 2009 – on 3 May (World Press Freedom Day), in September and in. More on publications

Self-generated funding (excluding grants and member dues)

Total self-generated funding (excluding member dues and re-billing to Reporters Without Borders International) was €2,200,317, down 33% from €3,291,825 in 2008, and was 58% of total funding (75% in 2008). The sharp drop was caused mainly by the non-recurrence of the income generated by the 2008 Beijing Games campaign.

Self generated funding is coming from:
 Sales of three books of photographs and three year-end calendars. These proceeds increased 9.6% from 2008 and accounted for 53% of self-generated funds. 171,000 copies of the books were sold in 2009-10, compared with 160,000 in 2008-09, and advertising income from them fell 5% (after deductions), to €315,000 from €330,000.

Private donors (private grants and foundations)

Donations by French and foreign private foundations and firms were less than in 2008 mainly due to the loss of its main donor, which in 2008 provided more than €300,000 in funding, free advertising and partnership arrangements.

Income from corporate donors and sponsors was €570,208, up €91,425 (from €478,963 in 2008), because of the first €300,000 instalment of the Roland Berger prize, which substantially made up for the loss of the donor mentioned earlier. This heading accounted for 14% of total income (down from 10% in 2008).

The main company helping Reporters Without Borders in 2009 was EDF foundation. Private foundations included the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Overbrook Foundation and the US National Endowment for Democracy.

Private donations accounted for 14% of the combined Reporters Without Borders income (same as 2008).

Public grants

These were 18% of the total budget (7% in 2008) and came from the French prime minister’s office, the French foreign ministry, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, the European Commission and UNESCO.

Some partners provide vital assistance in kind

The books of photographs are made possible by a network of partners:

The French organisations Presstalis, SNDP and UNDP and the Relay and Interforum Editis press-handling firms distribute the books free of charge.

France Loisirs takes no commission to sell them to its members through its bookshops and in its catalogue.

The books are also sold by the French leisure chains and supermarkets Fnac, Carrefour, Casino, Monoprix and Cora, the websites alapage.com, fnac.com and amazon.fr, as well as A2Presse and more than 300 bookshops throughout France.

The advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi designs and conducts all the Reporters Without Borders publicity campaigns free of charge.

Many media outlets give us valuable help throughout the year with free advertising for our publicity campaigns.