AEJ France had a private meeting (April 8) with Bernard Kouchner, French foreign minister. During this meeting full attention was paid to the two French journalists, Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier (both France TV), detained since 29 December 2009 by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
During the Louise Weiss Prize ceremony (see report), in the presence of Pierre Lellouche, French Secretary for European Affairs, the situation of the two French journalists was mentioned by Véronique Auger. His answer: “we do all we can, it’s very complicated”…
It seems that the French government is reluctant to help them, mentioning many times the “costs” of the rescue operations, their “lack of professionalism” (they are both veteran journalists) and the “trouble for our military forces in Afghanistan”.