On the occasion of the World Day Against Cyber Censorship on 12 March 2025, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stresses the importance for the Chinese public of its Operation Collateral Freedom, an initiative helping media outlets bypass the Chinese regime’s censorship.
Collateral Freedom is an initiative launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in 2015, which uses the method of mirroring websites of media outlets to guarantee their access in countries in which they are blocked by the censors. Under this initiative, RSF has already unblocked more than 150 media outlets’ websites worldwide, listed in its GitHug page except when security concerns require media outlets to remain discreet.
Upholding the right to information in China
RSF currently enables 33 media outlets censored in China to overcome the “Great Firewall of China,” one of the most sophisticated systems of digital censorship and control in the world, which was strengthened when Chinese leader Xi Jinping came to power. Through the created mirror sites, Chinese citizens can now access independent sources of information as an alternative to the official propaganda, often touching on increasingly taboo topics in China, such as political news, social conflicts, and the human rights violations carried out by the Beijing regime.
Canadian organisation Citizen Lab, a pioneer in forensic analysis of spyware that denounced the use of Pegasus spyware to spy on journalists, which has dedicated articles on China:
“For our work to have the greatest impact, it needs to get into the right hands – the hands of journalists, policymakers, activists and human rights defenders who can apply our findings to bring about change. Thanks to RSF’s Collateral Freedom project, our evidence-based research is more accessible to the audiences who arguably need it the most.”
Ron Deibert,
Director and founder of The Citizen Lab
Taiwan at the forefront of Chinese-language independent content
This year, Collateral Freedom also unlocked the websites of Taiwanese media outlets, including New Bloom, an online magazine covering activism in Taiwan, as they can provide Chinese-language news that are not subject to China’s censorship or control. They are part of the 12 China-related news media outlets for which Collateral Freedom created mirror links in 2024, additionally to Hong Kongese, Tibetan and Uyghur news platforms.
“For those who carry on the struggle for human rights in authoritarian contexts, in which there is constrained civil space, access to information and the ability to disseminate it is key. Projects as Collateral Freedom, then, take on this very necessary role of allowing those in authoritarian regimes to circumvent website blocks and restrictions. This allows outlets such as New Bloom, as well as others, to be able to reach audiences in China that we might otherwise be unable to.”
Brian Hioe,
Founding editor of New Bloom.
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