Gilles Jacquier

Gilles Jacquier (25 October 1968 – 11 January 2012) was a French photojournalist and reporter for France Télévisions. Jacquier worked as a special correspondent for Envoyé spécial, one of France's best known documentary programs which airs on France 2. He had a successful career, has covered major international military conflicts and won many awards during his life. He was killed on 11 January 2012 while covering the ongoing Syrian Civil War in Homs, Syria.

Biography

Career Jacquier was born in Évian-les-Bains and started his career in 1991 as a reporter images for France 3 Lille. From 1994 to 1998, he worked for France 3 all around the world in many countries, such as South Africa, Japan, Nepal. Jacquier, who was wearing a bullet proof vest, was shot in the collarbone and recovered. They have twin girls: Apoline and Cloée (born 2010).

Gilles Jacquier was the son of Georges Jacquier, who was baker and founder of a ski school at Bernex. His mother died two weeks after the birth of Jacquier's children. His grandfather was the mayor of Bernex for thirty years. Pro-government nun, Mother Mary Agnes (Agnes Mariam de la Croix), was his fixer.

On 11 January 2012, Jacquier was interviewing local Syrian businesspeople and, at Mother Agnes' urging, traveled to a Homs hospital, It has been reported that Jacquier was killed in a rocket attack while in the field. and that seven other people were also killed in the attack. Other journalists, including Jacques Duplessy, Patrick Vallélian and Sid Ahmed Hammouche, who were present in Homs the day Gilles Jacquier was killed also think the Syrian regime was responsible for this death. A regime defector also says Gilles Jacquier was deliberately killed in a planned government attack.

Context Homs is a power base for opponents of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meet.

Two Swiss journalists, Patrick Vallélian of L'Hebdo and Sid Ahmed Hammouche of La Liberté, who were also working in Homs, accused the Syrian government of being behind the attack that killed Jacquier. Opposition groups also accused the Syrian government of orchestrating the Homs attack. Other opposition sources and Arab League observers blamed anti-Assad rebels. Arab League mission reports from Homs state that Jacquier was killed by mortar shells fired by opposition forces. This version is denied by his wife and colleagues, who consider the wounds do not match with a death by mortar. French prosecutors announced a murder investigation into his death, while the French government launched its own independent inquiry. The investigation by the French Ministry of Defence concluded that Jacquier had been killed in an attack carried out by anti-Assad rebels. Caroline Poiron, Jacquier's wife, published the book Attentat Express in June 2013 with Vallélian and Hammouche that accuses Syrian government intelligence of a planned killing of her husband.

Reactions and awards

Reactions The news director for France Télévisions, Thierry Thuillier, called Jacquier one of the best journalists working for the group.

Awards Jacquier and his colleague, Bertrand Coq, jointly won the 2003 audiovisual Albert Londres Prize for their work on the France 2 documentary, Naplouse, on the Second Intifada in the Palestinian Territories.

In 2007, Jacquier won the TV Journalism Ilari Alpi 2007 for "Ukraine, the last frontier", a reportage from Envoyé Spécial. In 2009, he also won the Jean-Louis Calderon price (in the category "video") about his reportage about Afghanistan, broadcast in Envoyé Spécial.

In June 2011, Jacquier received an award in Italy for best international reporting Ilaria Alpi "Tunisia, the revolution in progress".