“There cannot be the rule of law if there is no freedom of the press,” says Lucie Morillon, who works for the group Reporters Without Borders. She recently spoke with Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to discuss what the organization does.
“Reporters Without Borders is an international press freedom organization, and our mandate is to protect journalists, to get journalists out of jail, to bring to justice people responsible for the murder of journalists,” says Morillon. Journalists who publish stories on corruption are particular targets.
North Korea, Eritrea, and Turkmenistan have the worst records on press freedom, according to Morillan, but the United States ranks 53rd out of 168 countries in terms of press freedom. As one example, she points to the imprisonment of freelance journalist Josh Wolf in California for refusing to reveal the name of a source.