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Philippe Massonnet appointed Asia-Pacific director
 

Philippe Massonnet, 56, was Agence France-Presse global news director from 2009 to 2014.
 

He began his career in 1981, working as a freelance journalist in China for the press and television from 1985 to 1989.
 

He joined the AFP economic service in 1990 and was a correspondent for the Agency in China from 1992 to 1996. He worked as a reporter then deputy head of the general reporting service in Paris from 1997 until 1999 when he became head of this service.

He served as Beijing bureau chief from 2002 to 2008 and Europe-Africa director from 2008 to 2009.
 

A graduate of the Centre Universitaire d'Enseignement du Journalisme and the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Philippe Massonnet is a specialist in China and has written three books on the country.
 

He replaces Gilles Campion who has been appointed Geneva bureau chief.

Yacine Le Forestier appointed joint head of AFP GmbH, the German subsidiary of Agence France-Presse

Yacine Le Forestier will at the same time hold the position of AFP Berlin bureau chief, with the support of a news editor who will work with him on editorial issues.
 

The aim of this appointment is to strengthen the management structure of AFP’s German subsidiaries. Yacine Le Forestier will be deputy to the GmbH managing director Andreas Krieger.
 

The role of the new joint head will be to improve editorial coordination between AFP’s Berlin bureau and AFP GmbH.
 

Yacine Le Forestier was previously head of AFP’s German sports subsidiary SID, and will work with the sports and marketing departments in Paris to ensure the continued development of this company in the context of AFP’s global strategic development of sports.
 

He will work with the new head of SID, to be appointed in the coming months.
 

He will also reinforce the sales department in Germany by contributing his expertise, specifically in the area of sport. 
 

Yacine Le Forestier, 50, is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. He joined AFP in 1989, working as a journalist in Berlin, Frankfurt, Lyon and London. He was economic editor in Paris from 2005 to 2007, then Brussels bureau chief from 2007 to 2012 before becoming editor-in-chief then manager of SID.

AFP GmbH, a 100% owned subsidiary of AFP, employs more than 50 journalists in Germany, Paris, Strasbourg, Brussels, Washington and Istanbul. It produces text, photo, video and graphics for Germany as well as German language multimedia content for the press, radio, TV and online media.

About AFP

AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,326 staff spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.