Reporters Without Borders

Using lottery numbers to fight press censorship

DDB Germany | Reporters Without Borders

Unexpected: In countries with press censorship the truth is hard to find. But even where the media gets strictly controlled – one thing is always in the news: The state-owned lotteries. So, Reporters Without Borders decided to hijack them. To bypass state censorship RSF turned the lottery numbers into an access code for journalism. By embedding the current lottery numbers into Twitter accounts with independent information, people could simply type the numbers in the Twitter search bar and the truth would show up. Since the lotteries are state owned the regimes involuntarily promoted the code all over the state media.

Works: Donations for Reporters Without Borders increased by 39% with all donations being used to make blocked Russian news websites accessible again.

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