There were several hundred this Friday evening in Paris, Place de la République, to pay tribute to Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, a journalist killed in Ukraine by Russian fire in the east of the country on May 30. The young reporter, aged 32, covered the war for BFMTV French news channel. During this tribute broadcast live on television, his relatives, his family and his colleagues took the floor to paint the portrait of a committed journalist.
His family, colleagues from BFM TV, including reporter Maxime Brandstaetter who teamed up with him in Ukraine, were present, as were Marc-Olivier Fogiel, general manager of BFMTV, and Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF, Reporters Without Borders. ” We need journalists recalled Christophe Deloire, especially in these troubled times where peace is threatened.
“He liked to give voice to the most humble, to the invisible, to those who are nothing, to give them light with his camera. » Sylviane Imhoff, mother of Frédéric pic.twitter.com/TGi8onG5fM
— RSF (@RSF_inter) June 10, 2022
The body of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, killed on May 30 by shrapnel during a bombardment in the Sievierodonestk region, was repatriated to France on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, in the presence of the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak. Aged 32, he had worked for BFMTV for six years and was carrying out his second mission there in Ukraine, as a journalist and image reporter (JRI). Graduated in 2014, he had been trained in journalism at the Institute of Journalism Bordeaux Aquitaine (Ijba), after studying philosophy in Paris.
He is the eighth reporter to be killed in Ukraine since the start of the conflict.
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After the announcement of his death, the French National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) announced the opening of a war crimes investigation. The investigation entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity, Genocide and War Crimes (OCLCH) also relates to “the injuries suffered by his colleague Maxime Brandstaetter”, present with him during the report, specified the Pnat.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna tweeted that the journalist had been “killed by a Russian bombardment”.
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(and with AFP)