Mortaza Behboudi

Last updated
Mortaza Behboudi
Mortaza Behboudi at Cannes.jpg
Born22 April 1994, Wardak, Afghanistan
NationalityFranco-Afghan
Alma materPantheon-Sorbonne University (MA)
OccupationJournalist · Documentary Filmmaker

Mortaza Behboudi (born April 22, 1994) is a Franco-Afghan war reporter and documentary filmmaker. [1] In 2019, he was featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in the category of Media and Marketing for his work on Guiti News. [2] Mortaza Behboudi is Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents Prize and Prix Varenne winner in the year 2022. [3] [4] On January the 7th, 2023, Behboudi was detained and imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan, from where he had been reporting for a variety of international media since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. [5] He was released from his detention after 284 days on the 18th of October, 2023. [6]

Contents

Early life and education

Mortaza Behboudi was born in Afghanistan, in the Wardak province. [7] He is of Hazara ethnicity, a minority He became a refugee in 1996 when his parents fled to Iran to escape the newly established Taliban regime. There, at the age of seven, he started working at a local brick factory together with his family. Behboudi joined a carpet factory when he was twelve, where he worked at night whilst attending school during the day. [8] [9]

In 2012, Behboudi came back to Afghanistan to earn his bachelor’s degree in Law and Political Science at Kabul University. In Kabul, he would work as a reporter and cameraman for several journals and TV stations. He also founded the first economic paper in Afghanistan, Daily Bazar, in 2014. Behboudi had to flee the country when in 2015 he published an investigative piece that led to him being targeted by the Taliban. After being unable to gain asylum in the USA, UK, and Italy, he was accepted by the French. [10] In Paris, he was protected and hosted by The House of Journalists (French: La Maison des Journalistes). During this time, he studied at Pantheon-Sorbonne University to obtain his master's degree in International Relations. [11] [12]

Career

Since 2012, Behboudi has worked as a journalist in over 35 countries. [13] Mortaza co-founded Guiti News in 2018 and was the director of publication until 2020. The online media platform is the first refugee-led media in France and provides a different perspective on news and migration. [14] For this initiative, Behboudi was selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 in the category of Media and Marketing. [15] He continued his humanitarian work from 2018 as a consulting editor and communication specialist at UNESCO until 2019. [16] [17] Since 2017, Mortaza Behboudi has been invited to several High Schools around France to promote media education. [18] [19] [20]

In 2020, he was reporting from inside Greece's largest refugee camp, the refugee camp Moria. From March to August he was confined inside the camp, living with thousands of refugees to report on their daily lives. [21] [22] [23] In addition to this, he was working on his documentary film, Moria, a Living Hell (French: Moria, par-delà l'enfer) for Arte, which was selected for the Festival de Cinéma de Douarnenez in 2021. [24] [25] [26] [27]

Since 2021, Behboudi has worked with several news medias on the coverage of Afghanistan. In 2022, Behboudi won the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents Prize in the section of Television Trophy for his report that was done with France 2 called "Les petites filles afghanes vendues pour survivre". [28] [29]

Together with the French journalist Rachida El Azzouzi, he also won the 3rd Prize at Bayeux Calvados-Normandy War Correspondents Awards in the Written Press category, as well as the Varenne Prize in the category of the National Daily Press for their series of reports "A travers l'Afghanistan, sous les Talibans”. [30] [31] Behboudi is the co-director together with Rachida El Azzouzi of the documentary "They will not erase us, the fight of the Afghan women", which was produced in 2022 and broadcast on Mediapart and Arte. [32]

On January the 7th, 2023, Behboudi was detained and imprisoned by the Taliban in Afghanistan, from where he had been reporting for a variety of international media since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. A Support Committee working to secure his release was convened on February 9, 2023 by Reporters Without Borders and includes organizations such as Arte, France 24, France Info, La Croix, Libération , Marianne, Mediapart , Radio France, TV5Monde, the Council of Paris, the Human Rights League and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University [33] [34] While detained, he won the International Association of Press Clubs Freedom of Speech Award, and was nominated for the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award. [35] [36] After 9 months of campaigning, Mortaza Behboudi was released on the 18th of October, 2023. [37]

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvados (department)</span> Department of France

Calvados is a department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the Normandy coast. In 2019, it had a population of 694,905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caen</span> Prefecture and commune in Normandy, France

Caen is a commune 15 km (9.3 mi) inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants, while its functional urban area has 470,000, making Caen the second largest urban area in Normandy and the 19th largest in France. It is also the third largest commune in all of Normandy after Le Havre and Rouen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bayeux</span> Subprefecture and commune in Normandy, France

Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Étréham</span> Commune in Normandy, France

Étréham is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vire</span> Part of Vire Normandie in Normandy, France

Vire is a town and a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Vire Normandie.

The following is a list of the 25 cantons of the Calvados department, in France, following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrondissement of Vire</span> Arrondissement in Normandy, France

The arrondissement of Vire is an arrondissement of France in the Calvados department in the Normandy region. It has 44 communes. Its population is 72,565 (2016), and its area is 1,205.9 km2 (465.6 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ahmed Benchemsi</span> Moroccan journalist

Ahmed Reda Benchemsi is a Moroccan journalist. He is the founder and was the publisher and editor of TelQuel and Nichane magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Lamb</span> British journalist and author

Christina Lamb OBE is a British journalist and author. She is the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass media in Afghanistan</span>

The mass media in Afghanistan is monitored by the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC), and includes broadcasting, digital and printing. It is mainly in Dari and Pashto, the official languages of the nation. It was reported in 2019 that Afghanistan had over 107 TV stations and 284 radio stations, including 100s of print media and over 1,800 online media outlets. After the return of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) in 2021, there was a concern that the mass media will significantly decrease in the country. The number of digital media outlets is steadily increasing with the help of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and other such online platforms. IEA's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid suggested that the media should be in line with Sharia and national interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Véronique de Viguerie</span>

Véronique de Viguerie is a French photojournalist. She was noted for covering a story about an Afghan guerrilla group responsible for the Uzbin Valley ambush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Paul Mari</span> French author and journalist

Jean-Paul Mari is a French author and journalist. He was born in 1950 in Algiers, leaving his birthplace at the age of 11. He studied psychology and worked as a physiotherapist at a hospital in Toulouse. He has since done stints as a radio host, radio reporter and print journalist. Since 1985, he has been attached with Le Nouvel Observateur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judicial corporal punishment in Afghanistan</span>

Judicial corporal punishment in Afghanistan is illegal but has been reported in the past. According to United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), it is still carried out in public. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), however, rejected UNAMA's claim as baseless.

Rémy Ourdan is a French journalist, war correspondent for the newspaper Le Monde, and documentary filmmaker.

The Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents, previously the Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents, is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bayeux and the Departamental Council of Calvados and now the Normandy Region in France. Its goal is to pay tribute to journalists who work in dangerous conditions to allow the public access to information about war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christophe Boltanski</span> French journalist and writer

Christophe Boltanski is a French journalist, writer and chronicler, laureate of the prix Femina 2015 for his novel La Cache.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chékéba Hachemi</span> Afghan diplomat and writer

Chékéba Hachemi, is an Afghan feminist and writer. She was the first Afghan woman to be named diplomat, in 2001. Hachemi is the President and founder of the NGO Afghanistan Libre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre de formation des journalistes de Paris</span> French Grande Ecole of Journalism, part of the Assas University, in Paris, France

The Centre de formation des journalistes or École CFJ is the journalism school of Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, located in Paris and Lyon, France.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Normandy, is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have reached Normandy on 27 February 2020,

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of Speech Award</span> Journalism award

The Freedom of Speech Award honors persons or organisations for their exceptional contributions to the fight for or in defence of free speech, or creating conditions and supporting efforts promoting freedom of speech.

References

  1. ↑ Macnab, Geoffrey. "Cannes FF: Moria, Beyond Hell by Mortaza Behboudi". Business Doc Europe.
  2. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  3. ↑ "Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie". Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie (in French). Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  4. ↑ Foundation Varenne, Remise des Prix Varenne 2022, 4:54-5:10, retrieved 2023-02-04
  5. ↑ "RSF and 15 media outlets call for the release of French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi, held in Afghanistan | RSF". rsf.org. 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  6. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi's new-found freedom: the story of more than 9 months of campaigning | RSF". rsf.org. 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  7. ↑ Gaignoux, Timothy (2020-12-14). "PORTRAIT. Mortaza Behboudi, le reporter des sans-voix". Ouest-France.
  8. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi • Paris Institute for Critical Thinking". 11 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  9. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi, mille et une vies". Le Telegramme (in French). 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  10. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi • Paris Institute for Critical Thinking". 11 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  11. ↑ MDJ, Redaction (2016-11-14). "Mortaza Behboudi, "messager de l'espoir" à l'université Panthéon-Sorbonne, 06-09 2016". Maison des journalistes (in French). Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  12. ↑ "Exposition Photo : "Waiting" | Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne". www.pantheonsorbonne.fr. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  13. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi • Paris Institute for Critical Thinking". 11 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  14. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi, ou «un autre regard sur l'exil". RFI (in French). 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  15. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  16. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi • Paris Institute for Critical Thinking". 2021-03-11. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  17. ↑ Baldwin, Ashley. "Mortaza Behboudi". UNESCO. Retrieved 2023-02-04.
  18. ↑ "Colomiers. Un journaliste exilé témoigne au lycée". ladepeche.fr (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  19. ↑ MDJ, Redaction (2017-06-07). "Renvoyé Spécial: le journaliste afghan Mortaza Behboudi au Lycée Jeanne-Hachette de Beauvais". Maison des journalistes (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  20. ↑ "La leçon de vie (et de journalisme) de Mortaza Behboudi aux lycéens de Charlotte-Perriand". La Voix du Nord (in French). 2020-02-14. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  21. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi, le loup blanc de Lesbos". La Croix (in French). 2020-11-03. ISSN   0242-6056 . Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  22. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi : biographie, actualités et émissions France Culture". France Culture (in French). Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  23. ↑ "À Lesbos, les conditions de vie précaires des réfugiés dans l'attente d'un asile". France 24 (in French). 2021-03-30. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  24. ↑ Macnab, Geoffrey (2021-07-11). "Cannes FF: Moria, Beyond Hell by Mortaza Behboudi". Business Doc Europe. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  25. ↑ "Greece: Moria - A Living Hell - ARTE Reportage - Watch the full documentary". ARTE. Archived from the original on 2022-12-05. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  26. ↑ Cinéma, Publié par Festival de (5 August 2021). "Programmation 2021" (in French). Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  27. ↑ "Exil #1 – Camp de Moria – Festival de Cinéma" (in French). Archived from the original on 2022-07-06. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  28. ↑ "Afghanistan : pour survivre, des parents se résignent à vendre leurs enfants". Franceinfo (in French). 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  29. ↑ Admin (2022-10-08). "29e Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie des correspondants de guerre : le palmarès". Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  30. ↑ Mediapart, La rédaction de (14 August 2022). "À travers l'Afghanistan, sous les talibans". Mediapart (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  31. ↑ Admin (2022-10-08). "29e Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie des correspondants de guerre : le palmarès". Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.
  32. ↑ Behboudi, Rachida El Azzouzi, Mortaza (30 March 2022). "" Ils ne nous effaceront pas " : le combat des Afghanes". Mediapart (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ↑ "#FreeMortaza - Support committee created for jailed French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi". Reporters Without Borders. February 10, 2023.
  34. ↑ "RSF and 15 media outlets call for the release of French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi, held in Afghanistan". Reporters Without Borders. February 6, 2023.
  35. ↑ "Andrzej Poczobut and Mortaza Behboudi are laureates of the IAPC Freedom of Speech Award 2023 ‹ International Association of Press Clubs". pressclubs.org. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  36. ↑ Censorship, Index on (2023-09-22). "Nominees for the 2023 Freedom of Expression Awards – Journalism". Index on Censorship. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
  37. ↑ "Mortaza Behboudi's new-found freedom: the story of more than 9 months of campaigning | RSF". rsf.org. 2023-10-19. Retrieved 2023-10-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.