Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), died at the age of 53 following a devastating cancer on June 8. He was a staunch defender of freedom of the press and journalists around the world. After a funeral at the Saint-Sulpice church, RSF organized an evening of tribute and honor in his memory. The journalists he helped and his loved ones like his wife Perrine were gathered on June 20.
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In front of the doors of the Libre theater, boulevard de Strasbourg in Paris, journalists, colleagues, friends of Christophe Deloire wait before being able to access the room. Among those to whom an RSF badge is distributed, there are Mortaza Behboudi. For this Franco-Afghan journalist, it is thanks to the association that the hell of incarceration in Kabul ended.
“ After more than seven months in the intelligence services prison, I was transferred to the public prison where, in fact, I met for the first time a lawyer mandated by Reporters Without Borders “, he recalls.
“ Promote the independence, pluralism and freedom of journalism »
Reporters Without Borders, it is one of the main associations defending press freedom in the world, as explained by Thibaut Bruttin, the deputy director. “ We have 14 offices around the world and our mission is to ensure and promote the independence, pluralism and freedom of journalism. And we are here to collect ourselves, to come together, we need that ».
In front of the packed room, the speeches delivered follow one another. As Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian journalist who arrived in France a year and a half ago. “ I was allowed to find freedom ”, she declares.
An evening that can be summed up in one sentence: journalism was the battle of Christophe Deloire’s life.
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