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CHRISTINE BUHAGIAR, CURRENTLY DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF VIDEO RESPONSIBLE FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, HAS BEEN APPOINTED DIRECTOR OF AFP’S EUROPE REGION, REPLACING FLORENCE BIEDERMANN.
Christine Buhagiar will specifically contribute her video development expertise to the region.
Christine Buhagiar, now 53, studied at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Centre de Formation des Journalistes.  She joined AFP in 1984 and has spent her entire career with the Agency.
She began on the France desk, and then joined the political service where she covered parliament and the Socialist party.
In 1990 she returned to the economics service where she handled the industrial and international economy dossiers.  She was appointed to the London bureau as news editor in 1997.
Returning to Paris in 2000 she led a small team in the early days of AFP’s video production. She was tasked with creating a competitive AFP video production that would stand out from its competitors in a media environment characterised by an increasing demand for images.
She returned to London in 2010 as head of video for Europe and Africa and was later appointed deputy to the video director with special responsibility for international development -- a position she still holds.
Christine Buhagiar will take up her new position at the start of September.

JEAN-LUC BARDET, 51, SUCCEEDS DIDIER LAURAS AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FOR FRANCE.
Currently Brussels bureau chief, Jean-Luc Bardet has a degree in law, a post-graduate degree in political science and a diploma from the Centre de Formation des Journalistes.
He joined AFP in 1987 on the France desk, then worked as a reporter in Besançon (1988-1991), followed by Washington. After a brief stint at the economics desk he joined the political service in 1994, first as a correspondent at parliament and then at the prime minister’s office from 1997 to 2002.
He was then head of shift on the France desk and head of the economics reporting service (2004-2008). He then joined the global chief editor’s department and was appointed Brussels bureau chief in 2012. He co-authored, with Sylvie Maligorne (AFP) and Bruno Jeudy (JDD), "Les Coulisses d'une Victoire" (Editions L'Archipel), a book about the 2002 French presidential campaign.

FLORENCE BIEDERMANN, 57, EUROPE REGION DIRECTOR, APPOINTED LONDON BUREAU CHIEF. SHE WILL TAKE UP THE POST AT THE START OF SEPTEMBER.
Florence Biedermann joined AFP in 1982.  She was a correspondent in Bonn before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and then worked on the French desk in Nicosia.
After serving as Ankara bureau chief from 1998 to 2002, she joined the chief editor’s department.  She became deputy head of the culture, science and lifestyle service responsible for culture and media, a position she held until 2007 when she was appointed deputy director of the Europe-Africa region.
She was appointed editor-in-chief in 2009, and took over as Europe-Africa director in April 2012.
Florence Biedermann is a graduate of the Centre de Formation des Journalistes and Inalco (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales).

JOANNA BIDDLE, 52, APPOINTED BUREAU CHIEF AT THE HAGUE.
A graduate of Lancaster University and the CFPJ, Joanna Biddle joined AFP in 1994. She has spent most of her career abroad, beginning in Nicosia. She was deputy Asia editor (1997-2002) based in Hong Kong, head of the Paris English desk (2002-2005),  Lifestyle editor in the culture, science and lifestyle service and head of the English desk in Washington (2007-2012).  Since 2012 she has held the post of US State Department correspondent.  

GILLES CAMPION, 63, APPOINTED GENEVA BUREAU CHIEF.
A graduate of Sciences-Po Paris, Gilles Campion is an Asia specialist, where he has spent most of his career, and speaks Japanese and Chinese.
After joining AFP on the international desk in 1978, his first posts were in Beijing, followed by Hanoi and then again in Beijing, where he served as bureau chief from 1993 to 1998.
He was appointed Tokyo bureau chief in 2007, then Asia-Pacific director in 2012. Between these assignments he also served as Middle East editor in Nicosia (1999-2001) and head of the Europe desk in Paris (2002-2007).
 
SYLVIE GUYOT, 43, APPOINTED VIDEO DEPUTY IN THE GLOBAL CHIEF EDITOR’S DEPARTMENT.
A graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Sylvie Guyot has spent her career at the Agency in the video service. She joined Bloomberg TV in 1998 and has held the posts of deputy head of the AFP video service and sports video coordinator.

URSZULA HYZY GODFARD, 48, APPOINTED TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF.
With a degree in economics, a Master’s degree from ESIT and a degree in Russian from Inalco, Urszula has spent most of her career abroad. She was successively posted to Washington, Tokyo and Moscow and was Warsaw bureau chief. She has also worked in Lille, the economics service and on several desks.

ANTOINE LAMBROSCHINI, 34, APPOINTED DEPUTY BUREAU CHIEF AND NEWS EDITOR IN BERLIN.
Antoine began his career at AFP in 2005, first in Moscow then as correspondent in Almaty responsible for Central Asia under the authority of the Moscow bureau. He returned to Moscow in 2008 and was then posted to Tunis where he served first as deputy bureau chief in 2012 then as bureau chief from 2013.

SYLVIE LANTEAUME, 56, REPLACES FRÉDÉRIC GARLAN AS HEAD OF THE ECONOMICS SERVICE IN PARIS.
A graduate of the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille, Sylvie Lanteaume began her career at AFP in 1983 in Bordeaux, followed by Toulouse. She then embarked on a long international career -- Moscow, Washington, Nicosia, London, Washington. Her postings included those in the field  (as correspondent in Moscow and at the State Department);  with responsibility (deputy news editor in Nicosia) and economic (economic coordinator in London and Washington).

FLORENCE PANOUSSIAN, 50, SUCCEEDS PHILIPPE ZYGEL AS BOGOTA BUREAU CHIEF RESPONSIBLE FOR COLOMBIA AND ECUADOR.
A graduate of the Centre de formation des journalistes with a Master’s degree in public law, Florence Panoussian joined the international desk of AFP in 1991.  She worked in the French provincial bureaux of Bordeaux and Caen and then held foreign postings in Montevideo and Johannesburg. She joined the multimedia service in Paris in 2008 and was head of French MMD desk and then head of the Web and Mobiles service.

MARIA ISABEL SANCHEZ, 46, APPOINTED BUREAU CHIEF IN CARACAS.
Maria Isabel joined AFP in 1993 as a journalist in the San José bureau where she stayed until 2002, when she moved to the Bogota bureau. Three years later she joined the Havana bureau and served as news editor there from 2009 to 2011. She then became news editor in the San José bureau and took over as bureau chief in 2013.
She has been sent as a special envoy to Venezuela several times in recent years, and covered the funeral of Hugo Chavez in 2013 and the election President Nicolas Maduro.

JOCELYNE ZABLIT, 52, APPOINTED LOS ANGELES BUREAU CHIEF.
Jocelyne holds a Master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan and a BA in communication.
She began her AFP career on the English desk in 1993 and moved to the international service three years later. She spent 2001 to 2003 in the Medialab and then returned to the desk before moving to Washington where she covered European affairs and was Lifestyle editor from 2005-2007.  After a period as Beirut bureau chief, she has been head of the Paris English desk since 2012.
 

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 2,326 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.