News+: Reporters Without Borders Fights Censorship With Minecraft: Documents Are Uploaded And Stored As Virtual Books Within The Game

Abstract

The press freedom nongovernmental organization (NGO) Reporters Without Borders (RSF, after its French title, Reporters Sans Frontières) has created a way for readers everywhere to access and read documents that have been banned or censored in the countries where they were published—through The Uncensored Library, a collection of articles and books housed in the virtual world of Minecraft. Among other work, RSF supported protests in China during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, established the only independent radio station broadcasting to Eritreans in 2009, created a media support center in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake, and has provided training to Syrian journalists and bloggers. All partners worked on the project pro bono; any donations go to RSF directly to be used where funding is most needed, such as its newest project, "The Truth Wins," which uses nations' winning lottery numbers—announced publicly on television, radio, and online, as lotteries are run by local governments—to serve as codes to access censored or repressed information on servers run by RSF..