Press Freedom Day: Friends of Ghislaine, Claude and Camille reunited in Paris

This photo taken on May 3, 2019 in Paris shows a street sign in tribute to Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, two RFI colleagues killed on November 2, 2013 in Mali, and French photojournalist Camille Lepage, murdered in the Central African Republic on May 12 2014. AFP - KENZO TRIBOUILLARD

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Like every year, on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, the relatives of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, our colleagues and friends from RFI kidnapped and murdered in Mali eight and a half years ago, as well as Camille Lepage, photoreporter killed in an ambush in the Central African Republic also eight years ago, paid tribute to them, this Tuesday, May 3, 2022 in Paris.

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With our special correspondent,

On the square in the center of Paris which bears their three names - Ghislaine Dupont, Claude Verlon and Camille Lepage -, reunited since May 3, 2019, they came to say that they were not forgotten.

Camille Lepage's mother: 

For three years, we have been meeting with families, friends of Claude and Ghislaine, around this square.

We are united forever, with Camille.

Don't give up, we're still here and we'll fight for the truth, even if it's hard to come and hear.

Because the search for the truth on the reasons and the circumstances of their death is slow and difficult, especially in zones of armed conflict.

The deterioration of relations between Paris and Bamako or Bangui does not help, and the freedom of the press to which this May 3 is dedicated is still under threat today.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, around twenty journalists have died.

This is why the relatives of Camille, Claude and Ghislaine invited the Ukrainian journalist Alla Lazareva.

If I am here, it is to express my solidarity with my colleagues in Ukraine, and to ask for the solidarity of the French press.

I know that there are many French journalists who come to Ukraine, they do their job, they come back regularly.

I know that it does not stop, that the French press continues to pay attention, to come, to realize, to do the reports above all, it is the most important: to go there and see how it goes , by his own eyes.

Finally, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was the voice of Cameroonian journalist Amadou Vamoulké, imprisoned without trial for more than 2,000 days.

►To re-read: Death of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon: eight years later, a kidnapper killed, but the investigation is progressing

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