“It is inadmissible for a journalist to be held hostage” – Release
Around the sister of the correspondent in Mali of “Liberation”, “Jeune Afrique” and “Le Point”, hostage for more than six months in the Sahel, Michèle Rubirola, first deputy mayor, and Christophe Deloire, president of RSF, recalled the urgency of the situation.
His portrait seems to watch passers-by, who arrive in the Old Port, coming down from the Panier. #FreeOlivierDubois, proclaims the tarpaulin placed on the right side of Marseille city hall, as in twelve other French cities. A wish, for the moment, concerning the correspondent in Mali of Release, but also Point and of Young Africa, hostage for more than six months now, kidnapped in Gao by one of the Islamist movements in the sector. In front of the black and white image of his brother, Canèle Bernard has a trembling voice, despite the determination of his words: “The silence is hard. The silence of the kidnappers and the silence of France. We know the government is working but we don’t know how fast. And this double silence, we find it difficult to understand. “
Withdrawn, his mother does not wish to address the handful of journalists who came to meet part of the family of Olivier Dubois, accompanied by the president of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, and Michèle Rubirola , first deputy mayor: “It is a cause that we support. It is unacceptable for a journalist to be held hostage. The town hall of Marseille supports Olivier Dubois as it supports all threatened people ”, she intervenes, gently, after the speech of Canèle, who lives between Briançon and Marseille, her “City of heart”. Hoping that this word, launched from the shores of the Mediterranean, reaches his brother.
Put the folder at the top of the stack
Last trace of Olivier Dubois, who disappeared on April 8: a 21-second video published in early May in which the 47-year-old journalist explains that he was kidnapped by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (Jnim, according to its acronym in Arabic ) and where he appears in a tent, sitting cross-legged, apparently in good health. “Experience has shown us that the hostages could hear about the mobilization” wherever they are, especially via RFI radio, “And that it wants their psychological strength”, assures Christophe Deloire. Who takes the opportunity to draw the portrait of“a journalist who reports, not of those which excite the spirits ”, in defense of a profession “Essential for democratic debate”. For RSF, as for its family and all its journalist supporters, it is not a question of “To make noise for the sake of noise”, but to ensure that the Olivier Dubois file is well at the top of the pile of government priorities, and thus bring home “The only French hostage in the world”.