Survivor of Mosul blast wins top journalism prize after losing three colleagues
Survivor of Mosul blast wins top journalism prize after losing three colleagues
French journalist Samuel Forey of the Figaro newspaper was praised by the jury of the Albert Londres prize, after surviving a deadly blast in Mosul that killed three others.
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Three other journalists were killed in the Mosul landmine blast [Getty]
A French journalist who survived a landmine blast in Iraq that killed three of his colleagues last month was awarded France's highest journalism prize on Tuesday.
Samuel Forey of the Figaro newspaper was praised by the jury of the Albert Londres prize for the "tenderness and humanity" of his coverage of the battle for Mosul.
Forey, 36, was slightly wounded in the explosion a fortnight ago that claimed the lives of three fellow journalists: Veronique Robert and Stephan Villeneuve of France, and Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Haddad.
He had been covering Iraqi and Kurdish attempts to take the city from the Islamic State group since last autumn.
French journalist Veronique Robert who was initially wounded in the blast, was pronounced dead on Saturday.
Robert, 54, who held Swiss nationality, had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement.
French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen paid tribute to a "great war correspondent", in a post on the ministerial Twitter account.
Robert was an experienced war correspondent specialising in coverage of the Middle East, Iraq in particular, said the statement from France Televisions.
She worked for several news outlets in France and Switzerland, including Le Figaro newspaper and Paris Match magazine. Robert has two adult sons.
The journalists were accompanying Iraqi special forces during the battle for Mosul, where jihadists from the Islamic State group entrenched in the narrow streets of the Old City have set numerous booby traps.
All of the journalists were working for production company #5 Bis Productions on a programme for the French news show Envoye Special, aired on public television channel France 2 at the time of the blast.
According to International Press Institute's Death Watch, Iraq ranked as the most dangerous place to be a journalist in 2016.
Half of the total deaths tracked in 2016, were war correspondents in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the report confirmed.
