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Christine Buhagiar, 53, has been appointed deputy head of video responsible for international development, based in London. A graduate of the CFJ and the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris, Christine has a long experience in video. After serving on the French desk and in the political and economic reporting services, she was responsible for the AFP service that supplied video to Bloomberg TV in 2000 and 2001. She was the driving force behind the creation of the video service in Paris in 2001, and since 2010 has been Europe-Africa video coordinator based in London.

Henry Bouvier, 52, has been appointed deputy head of video responsible for production of live coverage. A CFJ graduate who also holds a Master’s degree in Political Science, he has worked in London and was the Athens bureau chief after a period with the political service. He began his career at Reuters and then worked at Le Sport before joining AFP’s Spanish desk in 1988. He subsequently worked on the international desk and in the sports reporting service. On his return from Greece in 2005 he became a video journalist with AFPTV and in 2010 was appointed deputy to the editor-in-chief responsible for video.

Patrick Anidjar, 55, has taken over as head of Web and Mobile, deputy to the global editor-in-chief. He has spent most of his career abroad. He was a reporter in Jerusalem, worked in the Washington bureau and was Jerusalem bureau chief before returning to the global editor-in-chief’s department in Paris.

Stéphane Arnaud, 42, has been appointed head of photo for Europe and is also responsible for the photo content on AFP Forum. A graduate of the ESJ in Paris and holder of a Master’s degree in history, he began his career on the Image Forum desk in Paris and became head of the service and deputy to the photo editor-in-chief.

Frédéric Garlan, 57, will take over as Lyon bureau chief in April, replacing Véronique Buttin-Malamitsas. A graduate of the ESJ in Lille, Frédéric has spent most of his career on foreign postings and is an eco specialist having held nine different posts. He took over as head of the economic department in Paris in 2010 after returning from a posting to Washington and briefly working at the AFP Foundation.

Sylvain Estibal, 47, has been appointed director of the Mexico City bureau and will take up the position in June. A political science graduate, he began his career on the Image Forum desk in Paris and then took over as photo coordinator for Latin America based in Montevideo. Since his return to Paris he has been Europe photo coordinator. He is the first journalist from the AFP photo service to be appointed as a bureau chief abroad.

Stéphane Barbier, 55, has been appointed Tehran bureau chief. A political science graduate from Aix en Provence, he spent most of his career abroad after working at the visiotexte service and the Lyon bureau. He was successively appointed to London, Brussels, Harare and Johannesburg and then to the regional management in Europe/Africa, the Africa chief editor’s department and the Dakar bureau.

Guillaume Decamme, 37, has been appointed special envoy to Kabul. He has spent his entire career abroad, including two postings to Washington, one to Baghdad and then again to Washington.

Michael Smith, 40, has been appointed deputy Jerusalem bureau chief. He joined the AFP English desk in 2007 and held several positions before being appointed Lagos bureau chief.
Benjamin Sheppard, 38, has been appointed deputy Johannesburg bureau chief. He began his career with AFP in Hong Kong, then worked in Delhi, and most recently was Kabul bureau chief.

Emma Charlton, 38, has been appointed English Blogs coordinator. She began her career in the economic press in London and joined the AFP English desk in Paris 2004 before working at the Bureau de Paris reporting service. She was Lifestyle Editor in the service société from 2010 to 2013 and then joined the blogs service.

Françoise Michel, 58, has been appointed head of the service société (which covers lifestyle, culture, science, health and the environment) in Paris. A graduate of the ESJ in Lille and holder of a Master’s degree in law, she has worked on the economics desk, in the economic reporting service, the London bureau, the general news service, the Washington bureau, the Bucharest bureau, on the international desk and then in Sarajevo. She has also been assigned to the Moscow and Rome bureaux and worked on the Europe desk and in the France chief editor’s department.

About AFP :

AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,260 staff spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.