Iraq: Swiss reporter dies from Mosul injuries – “too many headstones”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is deeply saddened to learn that Swiss journalist Véronique Robert died yesterday in Paris from injuries received when an explosive device went off in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on 19 June.

She was the third journalist to die from injuries sustained in the same explosion, following French reporter Stéphan Villeneuve and their Iraqi Kurdish fixer Bakhtiar Haddad. All three were on assignment in Mosul for the France 2 TV channel’s current affairs programme Envoyé Spécial.

Samuel Forey, a French freelance journalist who was with them, was slightly injured by the same explosion.

“There are too many headstones in the cemetery of international reporters killed in the field, including Patrick Bourrat in Kuwait, Jean Hélène in Côte d’Ivoire, Lucas Dolega in Tunisia, Gilles Jacquier, Rémi Ochlik and Olivier Voisin in Syria, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon in Mali, Camille Lepage in Central African Republic and Bakhtiyar Haddad, Stéphan Villeneuve and Véronique Robert in Iraq, to mention only the most recent,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“The community of international reporters hadn’t finished patching its wounds before its blood flowed again. Véronique Robert’s death deepens the sadness of all those who are committed to international reporting and who believe that it is honourable role of journalists to be the witnesses of human tragedies.”

RSF shares the grief of Véronique Robert’s family and friends.