Edouard Boubat for Press Freedom. (Books Reviewed).

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

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

Reporters Sans Fontieres, (Reporters Without Borders) was created in June 1985 by Robert Menard, a journalist for Radio France, as a reaction against negative feelings about the press and in order to give better coverage to forgotten issues and conflicts. Public funds and private sponsors financed the organization at Its debuts. It is still the case. In 1989 this first period of activity of RSF stops. Under the influence of Chantal de Casabianca, coming from Amnesty International, the organization focuses on the denunciation of violations of the freedom of the press around the world and on helping journalist imprisoned because of the expression of their opinions. That year the first report documenting the violations of the freedom of the press is released. It is now published yearly in four languages: French, English, Spanish and Arabic. RSF organizes conferences 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 on Human Rights and UNESCO. For the past years the task of Reporters without Borders has been to record every infringement on the freedom of the press worldwide and to orchestrate campaigns to inform the media and the general public about them as well as to exert 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 on article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights condemning any incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. International Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3 since 1990, was instigated by RSF. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 1994.

Following the first International Press Freedom Day, Reporters without Frontiers started to publish an album of photographs whose proceeds would support the organization. In the last few years, especially after 9/11 the deterioration of the freedom of the press has increased; in every 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 over a list that counts more than 120 names. The portfolio in the current issue is dedicated to Edouard Boubat, a photographer that French poet Jacques Prevert (he wrote the original lyrics of the song Autumn Leaves) nicknamed "a Peace Correspondent." Boubat's work lies within the context of mid-twentieth century French humanistic photography, strongly anchored in social documentary with such photographers as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Martine Franck, Willy Ronis and more recently Claude Raymond Dytivon, Guy Le Guerrec or Marie-Paule Negre.

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

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

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