Edouard Boubat for Press Freedom. . - Books Reviewed - book review

Edouard Boubat for Pres Freedom. Paris: Reporters sans frontieres/Reporters without Frontiers. 128 p $6

"Don't wait to be deprived of freshs to stand up and fight for it."

Reporters Sans Fontieres, (Reporters Without Borders) was created in June 1985 by means of Robert Menard, a journalist for Radio France, as a reaction against negative feelings about the pres and in order to give better coverage to forgotten issues and conflicts. Public stocks and private sponsors financed the organization at Its first appearances It is still the case. In 1989 this first period of activity of RSF stops. below the influence of Chantal de Casabianca, coming from Amnesty International, the organization focuses upon the denunciation of violations of the freedom of the pres around the world and upon helping journalist imprisoned because of the expression of their opinions. That year the first report documenting the violations of the freedom of the pres is released. It is now published yearly in four languages: French English, Spanish and Arabic. RSF organizes conversations and seminars on professional ethics, and international campaigns for the release of imprisoned reporters. It has a consultative status with the Euro pean Council, the United Commission upon Human Rights and UNESCO. For the past years the task of Reporters without Borders has been to record each infringement on the freedom of the pres worldwide and to orchestrate campaigns to inform the media and the general public about them as well as to put forth pressures to have those infringements corrected. It also provides practical help to journalists and media that are the victims of repression. It has been active working against "hate media", basing its action upon article 20 of the International Covenant upon Civil and Political Rights condemning any incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. International Pres Freedom Day, celebrated upon May 3 since 1990, was instigated by means of RSF. It was officially recognized by the agency of the United Nations in 1994

Following the first International Pres Freedom Day, Reporters without Frontiers started to publish an album of photographs whose get aheads would support the organization. In the last hardly any years, especially after 9/11 the deterioration of the freedom of the pres has increased; in each album a list of the victims of persecutions linked to the freedom of expression is published. This year's list, "The Price of Freedom" features the profiles of ten journalists still in prison from Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tunisia and Vietnam above a list that counts more than 120 names. The portfolio in the general issue is dedicated to Edouard Boubat, a photographer that French author of poems Jacques Prevert (he wrote the original lyrics of the ballad Autumn Leaves) nicknamed "a Peace Correspondent." Boubat's work lies within the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of mid-twentieth century French humanistic photography, powerfully anchored in social documentary with like photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Martine Franck, Willy Ronis and more not long ago Claude Raymond Dytivon, Guy Le Guerrec or Marie-Paule Negre

About the reasons on what account for years, he photographed nation around the world, Boubat one time said: "People used to ask Renoir: "Sir, on what account do you paint?" The painter would reply: "Because it amuses me!" The word "amuses" contains the word "muse." [] Each photograph proffers more than it reveals." (Edouard Boubat, 1993)

Further information is available at http://www.rsf.org

Edouard Boubat for Pres Freedom. Paris Reporters sans Irontieres/Reporters without Frontiers. 128 p $6 [Available in bookstores in the USA]

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