While censorship on the part of governments is very strong in many countries, the NGO Reporters Without Borders At 2020, found a parade.
Transcend borders and barriers
There has always been censorship on the part of governments, and although the world has progressed in terms of freedom of expression, some countries continue to repress all attempts on the part of the people to express themselves. This is the case, for example, in Saudi Arabia, where since 2017, the number of journalists or activists in prison has been more than tripled since 2017! Indeed, the regime, led by Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salmane, hardened the restrictions surrounding what journalists can say.
But also in Russia, where journalists in the same way are persecuted, accused of betrayal and sent to prison after a simulacrum of trials. No later than June 18, 2025, a journalist, Artiom Friger, was arrested and accused of exemptions for working for the organization of Alexei Navalny. There is a real witch hunt, which makes a climate of terror reign.
These are only two example here, outside this situation concede at least a hundred countries and the majority of the world’s population.
Map reporting press freedom in the world in 2023
However, at the end of the 20th century, everything seemed to indicate that the world was at the dawn of a golden age for press freedom. Indeed at the time, we saw the intelligence of the USSR and the end of the totalitarian yoke of the latter on hundreds of millions of souls. We have since observed a global trend in a hardening of the legislation surrounding freedom of the press and intolerance towards different opinions.
The library
It is in this climate that the Library without censorshipOr ” The Uncensored Library »In English, by Reporters Without Borders In March 2020. The latter was built in 3 months by 24 players from 16 different countries on the video game video game Minecraft. It contains in books, hundreds of censored articles in some countries. The interest is to allow players to access censored articles in their country. Although the press is muzzled, video games are not necessarily, and Minecraft had no reason to be. This is why the NGO was able to “hide” these items and get around the censorship.
The non -censored library is a place where articles from the most dangerous corners of the world are preserved, where freedom of expression is attacked, “said Christian Mihr, Managing Director of RSF Germany.
There are 6 pieces of dedicated to a country: Russia, Vietnam, Egypt, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The last one is dedicated to Reporters Without Bordersits missions and its values. In the central hall is a map of the earth illustrating which countries are censor their journalists (second image). Then all around this map are 200 flags, associated with a book, in which an inventory of press freedom is written in the country in question.
“The non -censored library is a bold use of Minecraft and really embodies everything that is great in this game and in the community it has created,” James Delaney, Managing Director of BlockWorks.
A real little oasis in a propaganda desert, the library is an opportunity for those living in authoritarian countries, to take out the head of the water a little. Better still, its playful character gives it greater attractiveness, especially towards the youngest, those that power has not necessarily completely indoctrinated. It is therefore a golden opportunity to give them a tool to intelligence and maybe who knows, to change things in their country.
