Florence Aubenas: “Caen has a future in history”

Caen is not an unknown land for Florence Aubenas. Each return to the region since his work on the employees of Brittany Ferries, for his work The Quai de Ouistreham published in 2010, delighted her, she said. This time, she came to participate in a conference to better understand “how to go from war reporting to literature? », As part of the 4^eNormandy for Peace forum, Thursday September 30, 2021.

The invisible

Grand reporter at Release, then to New Observer, and now in the newspaper The world since 2012, Florence Aubenas has been interested in the invisibles of French society for several years. Held hostage for five months in Iraq in 2005, passed through many battlefields around the world, she does not claim to be a “war reporter.” I was not meant to be. I am a reporter, ”she could simply add.

In 1994, many journalists from the Parisian editors left for Rwanda, to cover the appalling civil war then underway. “In the profession, we use the dreadful term“ tournantes ”when we follow one another in the same place, when we consider that we need a permanent reporter. Florence Aubenas is seated at her writing desk for Release, when she hears: “Who can go to Rwanda tomorrow?” An arm goes up, you turn and it’s yours. It was done a bit like that. “

“Caen is more visible”

So inevitably when years later she is offered to participate in a meeting on peace, she responds without hesitation. “How can you say no to a forum for peace? ”Without forgetting to mention the place of the debates:

“This event has its rightful place in Caen, and we feel that on this theme, something has been happening here for several years. We have long talked about the D-Day landing beaches, with all the historical aspect of the Second World War, and we feel that in recent years, Caen has been more visible, especially since the arrival of Barack Obama in 2014. Caen has a future in history. ”

During the conference with his colleague, Jean Hatzfeld, emblematic figure of Release and author in particular In the nude of life which evokes the Rwandan genocide, discussed the link between literature and journalism. They each recounted in their own way the increasing difficulties faced by journalists in doing their work in many parts of the world. “Our profession, journalist, which was a shield has become a target. The planet has closed. If we take a globe to indicate where journalists can work, we can reduce it by a third. “

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