Agence France-Presse has appointed Sylvain Estibal to the post of regional director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This is the first time a journalist from the image side has been chosen to head one of the Agency’s seven regions.
A former photo director for Latin America and then Europe-Africa, Sylvain Estibal is currently Mexico bureau chief. In this role, he coordinated coverage of the 2017 earthquake. He will bring to his job as MENA regional director his experience in management, quality multimedia journalism and also in security issues, having handled situations in Mexico where journalists are constantly threatened.
In addition to his editorial and management missions, he will have as a priority “developing image-driven sales”, said AFP Chairman Fabrice Fries.
AFP’s Global News Director Phil Chetwynd called this appointment another illustration of “the exemplary transversal nature of journalism at the Agency, where the culture of developing image production enables us to mobilise talent from all our editorial departments to serve our news mission.”
In Asia, video journalist Stéphane Delfour is thus to become Bangkok bureau chief after having been in charge of AFP’s video production in the United States and then in France.
Sylvain Estibal erned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Master’s degree in Sociology and Masters in International Relations (specialised in the Arab World) from Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 5). He began his career as a freelance photographer during the war in Bosnia and joined AFP’s photo service in 1994. He became head of the Features Desk in 2000, then head of photo for Latin America in 2007 and head of photo for Europe-Africa in 2012. He has held the post of Mexico bureau chief since 2015.
Stéphane Delfour: Head of AFP TV France (2014-2019), launched the AFP video operation in the Americas in 2008 based in Washington, D.C, and developed AFP-services in Brussels (2010-2014). With a Bachelor in Communications from Sorbonne CELSA (1994), a Master’s degree in journalism from IPJ Paris-Dauphine (1997), he recently attained an Executive Master in Management of Digital Media from Sciences Po, focusing his thesis on AFP’s evolving business model.
