World Day Against Cyber Censorship: RSF Collateral Freedom project restores access to BBC News in countries where it is blocked
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has restored access to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website in countries where it has previously been censored, through its Collateral Freedom mirroring project. The initiative to unblock access to one of the world’s most important news organizations marks a significant step in RSF’s fight against online censorship.
The BBC’s online services have been blocked for years in countries like China, Iran and Russia, and to a lesser extent in Vietnam and Turkmenistan. RSF has deployed cutting-edge technology to bypass government-imposed restrictions, ensuring that millions of people around the world can once again access the broadcaster’s independent journalism online.
In 2023, RSF created a mirror website for BBC Persian, the BBC’s farsi service Since then, the project has expanded to included the entire BBC website in 43 languages, mirrored and accessible through this link.
“By harnessing innovative technology to deploy mirror sites, we ensure that vital, independent journalism remains accessible even in the most repressive digital environments. Collateral Freedom is not only about bypassing censorship—it’s about safeguarding the fundamental right to information for everyone, everywhere.
“The drastic reduction in press freedom and increase in interference in distribution means it’s even tougher for audiences to access independent and impartial news in some countries. All audiences around the world should be able to access BBC News services. By working with RSF, we are able to provide the tools needed to circumvent the severe restrictions on free media.
Collateral Freedom is an anti-censorship operation that leverages the use of mirror sites – real-time exact replicas of censored websites hosted on content delivery networks (CDNs). The method of unblocking requires no installation of additional applications.
A growth of 56% media mirrored in twelve months
With a 56% increase in mirrored media since 2024, RSF continues to expand its efforts to counter online censorship and safeguard press freedom worldwide, allowing 156 media outlets to still reach their audiences despite censorship. The list of unblocked sites is available on the operation’s GitHub page, except where security concerns require media outlets to remain discreet.
In July 2024, RSF expanded its efforts by creating mirror sites for several European media outlets censored in Russia, including the Franco-German public service channel Arte. In 2024-2025, websites blocked on Chinese network were also mirrored by RSF such as the Taiwanese media New Bloom, an online magazine covering activism in Taiwan, and Canadian organisation Citizen Lab, a pioneer in forensic analysis of spyware, which back in 2017 denounced the use of Pegasus spyware to spy on journalists.
