Nine years to the day after the assassination of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in Kidal, northern Mali, on Wednesday, November 2, RFI awarded the ninth scholarship bearing their names, created in 2014 by France Médias Monde, to Esther Senpa Blaksmedi, a journalist at CRTV Nord in Cameroon, and Henintsoa Tiana Miranto RAKOTOMALALA, a technician at Aceem Radio Madagascar. They will receive a four-week training course in Paris, fully funded, during the first quarter of 2023*.
The names of the two winners were announced today by Cécile Mégie, director of RFI, during the award ceremony held in Dakar.
This ninth edition of the Open Scholarship, open to 25 French-speaking African countries, was organized this year in Senegal. More than 300 applications were received this year, and 20 young professionals from 12 countries were selected (10 reporting technicians and 10 journalists). All of them benefited from two weeks of training in writing and in the RFI studios in Mandinka and Fulfulde in Dakar, provided by Rachel Locatelli, head of training at RFI, and Muriel Pomponne, journalist at RFI and editor-in-chief of foreign languages.
At the end of the training, the journalist candidates were asked to produce a report on the theme of "Dialogue and Tolerance," while the technician candidates prepared a report on professions in Senegal.
The winners were chosen unanimously by the jury:
Esther SENPA BLAKSEMDI,
25, originally from Cameroon, holds a degree in audiovisual arts and techniques from the CRTV Institute for Training and Preservation of Audiovisual Heritage. She is currently a journalist at CRTV Nord. She produced a report on children with congenital ichthyosis, a skin disease. The jury praised "the choice of a difficult and very human subject, treated with sensitivity and delicacy, and tinged with hope."
Henintsoa Tiana Miranto RAKOTOMALALA
, 26, from Madagascar, holds a master's degree in computer science from the National Center for Distance Learning in Madagascar. He is currently a technician at Aceem Radio Madagascar. His "all-sound" report takes listeners on a journey to discover the profession of sports educator and the training of children in soccer. The jury praised "very good work on the atmosphere, good technical mastery of sound recording, a coherent structure from the beginning to the end of the report, and the originality of the choice of subject."
The reports by the two scholarship winners will be broadcast on Wednesday, November 2, on Afrique Soir and on Thursday, November 3, on Afrique Matin.
These reports are also published on rfi.fr
, along with an article, a video, and a slideshow dedicated to the 9th "Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Grant" award ceremony.
The jury was chaired by Cécile Mégie
, director of RFI, and composed of Vincent Hugeux
, senior reporter and lecturer at the Sciences Po School of Journalism, Stéphanie Rabourdin
, deputy director of the Campus General Management of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA), Mamoudou Ibra Kane
, representative of the Senegalese press and CEO of the Emedia group, Frédérique Misslin
, deputy director of RFI in charge of world news, Charlotte Idrac
, RFI's permanent special correspondent in Dakar, Benjamin Avayou
, deputy head of mobile and video resources at RFI, Alassane Bireba
, technical manager at RFI in Mandinka and Fulfulde, and Yves Rocle
, deputy director of RFI in charge of African languages.