A Cameroonian journalist and a Burkina Faso technician have been named winners of the seventh Dupont Verlon Prize, established in honor of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, who were abducted and killed in Mali seven years ago while they reported to RFI.
The 2020 winners of the Dupont-Verlon Scholarship are Charles Abossolo Oba, a Cameroonian journalist, and Romain Roguinesida Bouda, a Burkina Faso sound engineer.
They each have a paid four-week training course in Paris. The date of their visit to the French capital has yet to be confirmed due to the coronavirus health crisis, but the first quarter of 2021 appeared in the pen.
This is the seventh time the prize has been awarded. The two laureates were selected from a few hundred entries. Twenty shortlisted candidates, from 13 different countries, were asked to give exemplary work.
The journalists were asked to report on the theme “Dialogue and Tolerance”, while the sound engineers had to work on the topic “Survive on the Street”.
Charles Abossolo Oba is a 29-year-old graduate of the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l’Information et de la Communication in Yaoundé. He works for the national broadcaster Cameroon Radio and Television.
Romain Roguinesida Bouda is 32 and also works for his national broadcaster, Burkina Radio and TV.
The winning entries can be heard on the RFI service website under the program title “Midi Africa”.