He has been dismissed with sincere affection on social networks by some of the most important reporters of Spain and Latin America. Surely the same will have happened in France.
He wasn’t famous at all, but… his prestige spread throughout the journalistic universe since in 2000 he wrote, together with Bruño Patiño, a book that anticipates the changes in the sector: “The press without Gutenberg”, he titled it and it proved to be a beacon and guide for what was to come.
Jean Francois Fogel died last Sunday in Paris at the age of 70 after suffering a stroke. He had worked for the France-Presse news agency, for two of the most important newspapers in his country, Libération and Le Monde, for the weekly Le Point, and for France Televisions.
It was his curiosity for universal journalism and his love of Latin America that drove him create links with media and journalists from Spain, Argentina and Colombia, among others. Until last Sunday he was President of the Governing Council and member of the Board of Directors of the Gabo Foundation, the institution founded by his friend Gabriel García Márquez, known in 1970, which deals with the dissemination and research of journalistic excellence and is based in Cartagena.
“Jean-François had a deep knowledge and interest in Latin America and Spanish-American culture, he was a good friend of Gabo, whom he met in the early 1970s, he loved journalism and literature, he was concerned about the freedom of expression and the quality of democracy in the region and first of all he made what we now call digital transformation, of which he became a practical expert, a generous promoter and a clairvoyant guide. He is irreplaceable and will be greatly missed but will always be remembered and we will pay him the tribute he deserves at the 11th Gabo Festival in Bogotá,” wrote Jaime Abello Banfi, director general of the Gabo Foundation, upon hearing the news.
In addition to La prensa sin Gutenberg, he was the author of the books “End of the century in Havana”, on the secrets of the collapse of Fidel Castro, and “El testamento de Pablo Escobar”, on the Colombian drug trafficker, a country with which Fogel had built a strong bond.
Several times his interest in changes in journalism led him to Argentina, and each time he visited clarion to exchange conversations about newspaper transformation.
In the last decade worked as a consultant to SudOuest, one of the largest newspaper publishing groups. Until the end, she combined this task with her vocation as a teacher and her passion for essay writing and writing.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.