Tuesday's Plenary Session: Florence Aubenas

19 August 2014 08:30 - 09:15 | Amphithéâtre

Florence Aubenas is a Belgian born, French journalist who has worked for Le Monde since 2012. For nearly 20 years she worked at Libération as well as several years with Le Nouvel Observateur. As an international reporter and war correspondent, she has covered critical events in Rwanda, Kosovo, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya as well as many important criminal trials.

She gained public attention in France during the first Outreau trial in 2004. In this famous “judiciary disaster” she was one of the first to (correctly) question the guilt of some of those convicted.

Florence Aubenas was taken hostage in Iraq on January 5, 2005 along with her translator Hussein Hanoun Al-Saadi. Both were freed on June 11, 2005. Her abduction transformed Ms Aubenas into a rallying figure for press freedom advocates in France and beyond. The Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders worked tirelessly for her release. A photo of her and Hanoun Al-Saadi hung on walls in cities all across Europe. During their six-month period of captivity, French broadcasters regularly reminded viewers of their situation.

From July 2009 until June 2012, Florence served as President of L'Observatoire international des prisons (OIP), a French organization dedicated to ensuring decent conditions of confinement and the respect of fundamental rights for detainees.

In 2009 she embarked on an extensive piece of undercover journalism in Caen, Normandy that exposed the plight of temporary workers forced to subsist on below minimum wages—in a similar manner as Günter Wallraff did in Germany during the 1980s and Barbara Ehrenreich in the USA during the 2000s. Her goal was "to tell the story of the people in France who are going under.” After many temporary jobs, she worked as a cleaning lady on ferries on Ouistreham’s quays. The resulting book, “Le Quai de Ouistreham” became a bestseller in France.

Florence Aubenas regularly speaks publicly on her ideas and ambitions for journalism.