Sports stars lend support to French hostages held in Afghanistan

Some of France's top sporting stars have lent their support to the two French journalists being held in Afghanistan.

It's now 268 days since Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier were kidnapped in Afghanistan.



The two men, staff journalists for the French public television station France 3, were taken captive, along with three Afghan colleagues - Mohammed Reza, Ghulam and Satar - as they were travelling in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province around 120 kilometres northeast of the capital Kabul.

That was back on December 29, 2009.

Although their plight might not be making the news headlines, it's certainly one that is not being forgotten and is in fact covered in every news broadcast on national public television in France.

At the end of every bulletin there's a reminder as to how long to the two men have been held and a thought shared by the presenter with the men and their families.

And this week a number of France's top sporting personalities - past and present - also lent their support to the campaign for the two men in a video clip broadcast on France 3 among them, Olympic gold medallist in canoëing Tony Estanguet, a member of France's 1998 World Cup winning team Emmanuel Petit and the captain of the national handball team, Jérôme Fernandez.

There is also an online petition and you can follow the link to sign.

Signer la petition

And lest people might forget about the two men, there's also an Internet site charting activities and reminding us all as to just how long they've been held.


Soutien aux journalistes otages place de la Bourse à Paris
envoyé par Nouvelobs. - Regardez les dernières vidéos d'actu.