Robert Ménard

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Robert Ménard (born July 6, 1953 in Oran in Algeria) is one of the founders and the current Secretary-General of the Paris-based international organization, Reporters Without Borders.

Ménard came from an old French occupation family which had lived in the French occupied territory Algeria since the 1850s. When he was nine years old, the family moved to Brusque, Aveyron. He studied religion, and planned on becoming a priest. While in college, he became aligned with Trotskyist elements, and joined the Socialist Party.

In 1975-1976, Ménard created a pirate radio station, Radio Pomarède, and became president of l'Association pour la libération des ondes, The Association for the liberation of the airwaves. He became the target of many lawsuits, in one of which, François Mitterrand, later President of France gave a character reference. He later created a free magazine, Le Petit biterrois, but was forced to close it down due to a lack of advertisers. In 1985, he created Reporters Without Borders.

Ménard became the focus of significant controversy after an interview with France Culture, in which in response to a question about the case of the kidnapped journalist Daniel Pearl, he made a statement which some have interpreted as saying that the use of torture could be justified in some circumstances.^[1]

On March 24, 2008, Ménard and two other members of Reporters Without Borders were arrested for attempting to disrupt the lighting of the Olympic Flame prior to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The disruption was aimed at protesting the supposed crackdown in Tibet and counter-terrorist activities by the Government of the People's Republic of China. ^[2]

Reporters Without Borders has been criticized for links to the CIA^[3]. The organization has denied the charge. ^[4]

Ménard is married to Emmanuelle Duverger.