MALI: Journalists and their supporters march in Bamako in tribute to two French journalists killed in northern Mali, as their bodies are taken to the airport for an official ceremony

Record ID: 214082

  • Title: MALI: Journalists and their supporters march in Bamako in tribute to two French journalists killed in northern Mali, as their bodies are taken to the airport for an official ceremony
  • Date: 4th November 2013
  • Summary: JOURNALIST SHOWING NEWSPAPER HEADLINE FROM ESSOR NEWSPAPER ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF THE TWO JOURNALISTS
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mali
  • Country: Mali
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8G9SNXPN4ALZ67AJQZ95VATC
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Malian journalists and RFI colleagues marched on the streets of Bamako on Monday (November 4) as French and Malian forces question suspects in northern Mali to find a small group of militants who carried out the killing last week of the two French radio journalists.
    Claude Verlon, 58 and Ghislaine Dupont, 51, both journalists at RFI radio, were found dead in northern Mali on Saturday (November 2) after being kidnapped in the city of Kidal.
    Journalists marched in Bamako, holding photos of the two slain journalists.
    Tiken Jah Facoly, a famous Ivorian reggae star, came to the march to express his own sorrow.

    "People shouldn't touch journalists, it's thanks to them that we are informed, it's thanks to them that minorities can be heard," Facoly said.
    The RFI journalists, who each had more than 10 years of experience reporting on African conflicts, were killed by gunfire after being abducted in front of the house of a tribal leader they had just interviewed in Kidal. Verlon's body was found some 12 km from the town shot three times in the head, while Dupont had been shot twice in the chest,
    "Today we are really sad and the Malian press wanted to be there side by side with the management and administrators of RFI to say that the Malian people are with the French people, in spirit with the two experienced world journalists on their last journey," said RFI journalist Mori Tour� Mali's president Ibrahim Boubakar Keita honoured the two journalists by awarding them Mali's order of the Cavalier posthumously.
    RFI officials and journalists also paid tribute to their colleagues at Bamako's airport.
    France is shaken by the killings, which happened only days after four French hostages kidnapped in Niger by AQIM were released following secret talks with officials from the West African country, ending three years in captivity.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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