Christophe Deloire, whose nonpartisan organization protected journalists, rescued dissidents from prison and championed diverse perspectives in journalism around the world, died in Paris on Saturday. He was 53.
The cause of death was reportedly complications from brain cancer. Reporters Without Borderswho has served as secretary general of the media group for the past 12 years.
Mr. Deloix, himself a journalist and author, has lobbied publicly and worked behind the scenes to promote press freedom in countries that suppress journalists. He has helped those threatened with arrest, imprisoned or held hostage to gain freedom.
In 2023, Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) coordinated Marina OfsyannikovaHe is a former Russian state television journalist who angered the Kremlin in 2022 when he barged into a live news show to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ovsyanikova was fined and forced to choose between imprisonment and exile. Then, after another public protest, she was placed under house arrest awaiting trial. On the advice of her lawyer, she fled Russia with her 11-year-old daughter, changing cars several times to evade authorities, then trudging through the mud across the border to France.
Mr. Deloire also facilitated the release of Olivier Dubois, A French journalist Kidnapped He was held by Islamic extremists in Mali for nearly two years and was not released until 2023.
As leader and spokesman for Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, Mr. De Loire oversaw a program to provide protective equipment and training to Ukrainian journalists after the Russian invasion and established the Press Trust Initiative to certify the reliability of news organizations to help restore public confidence in the news media.
Mr. Delors was a leading opponent of last summer’s appointment in pursuit of career diversity. Geoffroy Lejeune, A far-right media tycoon who serves as editor-in-chief of Le Journal du Dimanche, France’s only Sunday newspaper.
2017, protests against car bombings that killed people Daphne Caruana GaliziaMr. De Loval, Malta’s most famous investigative journalist, declared: “The pen can conquer fear.”
He also warned that Coronavirus pandemic There is a chilling effect on free speech, causing governments to “take advantage of political pauses, public shock and the impossibility of protest to take measures that would be impossible in normal times.”
He defended Julian Assange, The United States has been trying to extradite Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning from Britain after WikiLeaks, the organization he founded, published leaked documents about her in 2010.
Reporters Without Borders praised Mr. De Loire for his “tireless defence of press freedom, independence and pluralism on all continents in an environment of information chaos.”
The statement from Reporters Without Borders added: “Journalism was his lifelong goal, one he fought for with unwavering conviction.”
Christophe Nicolas Deloyer was born on May 22, 1971 in Parey-le-Monial, in the Burgundy region of eastern France. His parents, Lucien Deloyer and Marie-Annique Chevalson, were both teachers.
After graduating from the Higher School of Economics and Business Sciences, Mr. Deloir worked as an investigative reporter for L’Opinion magazine, covering political and social issues from 1998 to 2007. He then directed the Centre des Trainings des Journalists, a professional school in Paris, from 2008 to 2012.
His survivors include his wife, Perrine, and son, Nathan.
Mr. Deloix has worked in public and private television and has written several books, including two with Christophe Dubois: one on Islamic extremism that became a bestseller in France in 2004; the other on sex and politics, published in 2008.
exist “Gender politics” The author believes that successful French politicians are also charismatic and that journalists have a responsibility to report the full story and all the facts on any issue to their readers and viewers.
“If tomorrow the French people, our readers or our voters once again accuse us of keeping secrets in private, of applying different standards to the powerful and the humble, how should we answer them?” Deloix wrote in the daily Le Monde in 2011. “We should aspire to tell only the truth — the whole truth.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
