The Carleton Chapter of Reporters Without Borders (RWB) launched mid-January, and is co-founded by Michael Aarenau and Jordan Bootsma, two second-year students looking to promote press freedom.
The Carleton chapter is the first university chapter of RWB to launch in the world, according to the club’s media director Anaïs Voski.
Currently, the club consists of eight members and is expanding. Each member plays an executive role.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 1,110 journalists were killed since 1992. Journalists are currently being purposely targeted for their active role in the media. The CPJ also reported in the last year there were 221 imprisoned journalists.
“In a globalized world, press freedom issues matter here in Canada too because we’re all interconnected and issues affect us all either directly or indirect,” Voski said.
“For example, how ISIS has been purposefully targeting journalists by holding them hostage and executing them, which severely effects press freedom in the region,” Bootsma said.
In the near future, the Carleton chapter of RWB would like to have a paneled event with various guest speakers, including journalism professors and reporters.
In the meantime, they will be hosting several events and tabling at others, such as the panel discussion on Feb. 4 about the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
The club hopes to achieve an engaged student body who is aware of press freedom and is active in supporting these issues.
“The goal of our organization is to serve the interests of journalists as well as promote the initiatives Reporters Without Borders are doing, such as supporting their campaigns, working to create free press legislation, provide journalists with safety equipment, and free imprisoned journalists,” Aarenau said.
Carleton’s chapter are not spokespeople for RWB, but Aarenau said the two groups are in constant in communication.
“We present issues that are relevant to Carleton students,” Bootsma added.
Since the club’s formation, it has received the support of the School of Journalism’s staff, including Susan Harada, the associate director.
“Anaïs, Jordan, and I went to [Harada] to ask permission to table at the Kathy Gannon event a couple of weeks ago, and not only did she give us permission, but she also gave us a warm shout out from the stage at the end of the event,” Aarenau said. “She even told us during our meeting with her that she was overjoyed this had been created for Carleton.”
Many students have already shown interest in the newly-formed chapter, with 280 liking their recently launched Facebook page at the time of publication.
