(Press release)
RFI will present the 11th Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Award, created in tribute to its two reporters murdered in northern Mali on November 2, 2013, on Saturday, November 2, in Cotonou, Benin.
Each year, this scholarship helps strengthen the skills of 20 young African professionals, 10 journalists and 10 radio technicians/producers, and selects two winners who receive a month of intensive training in France at RFI, the Sciences Po School of Journalism, and the National Audiovisual Institute.
For this 11th edition, RFI will be in Cotonou to lead two two-week training sessions for 20 trainees from 11 countries, selected from more than 370 applications received this year.
The scholarship will be awarded during a ceremony held at the Novotel Hotel in Cotonou on Saturday, November 2.
The two winners of the promotion will be selected by a jury composed of Jean-Marc Four, Director of RFI, Cécile Mégie, Director of Cross-Media Strategies and Cooperation at France Médias Monde, Benjamin Avayou, Deputy Head of Mobile and Video Resources at RFI, Vincent Hugeux, senior reporter and lecturer at Sciences Po's School of Journalism, Stéphanie Rabourdin, deputy director of the INA Campus General Management, Daniele Gonod, president of the Association des Amis de Ghislaine Dupont et de Claude Verlon, Jean Luc Aplogan, RFI correspondent in Benin, Emmanuelle Sodji, France 24 correspondent in Benin, and Georges Amlon, journalist, trainer, and former editor-in-chief and director general of ORTB (Office de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Bénin).
The two trainers, Muriel Pomponne, editor-in-chief at RFI, and Rachel Locatelli, head of internal radio training at RFI, also attended the deliberation sessions.
On the occasion of this 11th edition, a new "Prize from the Association of Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon" will be awarded. It will reward two deserving candidates who did not win the grant by providing them with equipment to support them in their future careers.