Call for Applications: 2026 Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship Opens in Madagascar
RFI has opened applications for the 13th edition of the Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship, honoring two reporters killed in Mali in 2013. Ten Madagascar-based journalists and technicians will be trained in Antananarivo in October.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
RFI's 13th Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship is open for Madagascar-based journalists and technicians under 35. Five reporters and five technicians will be selected for October workshops, with the two top winners sent to Paris for a month of training.
Two reporters named Ghislaine and Claude were killed while telling stories from Africa. Every year since, a special class picks ten young radio workers from Africa to teach them better reporting skills. This year the class is in Madagascar, and the best students get a free trip to Paris to keep learning.
Analysis
A Scholarship Born from Tragedy
The Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon Scholarship was created by RFI to honor two French journalists killed in Kidal, Mali, on November 2, 2013, while covering the conflict in the country's north. Their murder remains one of the most prominent cases of targeted violence against media workers in Africa, and it helped push the United Nations to designate November 2 as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. The award ceremony is now held on that date each year, anchoring the program in a global press-freedom observance.
Thirteen editions later, the initiative has matured into a flagship training pipeline for French-speaking African journalism. The two top laureates of each edition typically travel to Paris for a fully funded month at RFI itself, the Sciences Po journalism school, and INA, France's national audiovisual institute — a passage that, for many alumni, opens doors to careers at international outlets.
Madagascar as 2026 Host
This year's edition is being run in partnership with ORTM, Madagascar's public broadcaster, and is restricted to residents of the island. Candidates must be under 35 with at least two years of radio experience. Five journalists and five technicians will be selected for a week of workshops in Antananarivo at the end of October, with the award ceremony held on November 2.
Applications run from August 3 to August 23 (midnight Paris time), submitted to a dedicated RFI email address. Required materials include a CV, a motivation letter, and a short audio submission — a reportage or sound piece for journalists, an editing or production sample for technicians, capped at two minutes and thirty seconds. The geographic restriction is unusual: most previous editions welcomed applicants from across French-speaking Africa, making this a deliberate bet on strengthening local capacity in a country where independent radio remains a vital, if under-resourced, source of news.
An Expanding Investigative Network
Beyond the ten trainees selected each year, the scholarship has spawned a community. The Dupont-Verlon Network for Investigative Journalism, formed by alumni, now counts 180 professionals from 14 African countries. Joseph Kahongo Amutake, a 2023 laureate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, credits the program with launching his career at France Médias Monde's Zoa outlet, calling it a "professional elevator." Cécile Goudou, a 2016 laureate from Benin, now leads REJI, an association promoting investigative journalism across the continent.
For 2026, a new "Prize of the Friends of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon" will also be awarded to two non-winning candidates in the form of professional equipment — a small but meaningful addition for journalists working in newsrooms that often lack basic tools. The growing network and the new prize suggest an institution that is not only memorializing the dead but actively widening the pipeline of trained African reporters.
Key points
- Applications are open August 3 to August 23 for the 13th edition of the scholarship, named after two RFI journalists killed in Mali in 2013
- The 2026 edition is restricted to residents of Madagascar, in partnership with the country's public broadcaster ORTM
- Five journalists and five technicians under 35 will be selected for workshops in Antananarivo in late October
- The two top laureates receive a fully funded month of training in Paris at RFI, Sciences Po, and INA
- Alumni have built a 180-strong investigative journalism network spanning 14 African countries
If this edition succeeds, it will deepen investigative reporting capacity in Madagascar, where local radio remains a primary information source. The expanded alumni network of 180 journalists across 14 African countries also creates a continent-wide support system that strengthens independent journalism over time.
Press freedom in Africa remains precarious, and journalists trained through the program operate in environments where reporting can carry real personal risk. The continued necessity of the scholarship, held each year on the UN's day against impunity for crimes against journalists, is itself a reminder that the dangers that killed Dupont and Verlon have not fully receded.
