He was passionate and a key analyst. Central figure of the Gabo Foundation, he participated in the training of generations of journalists.
He was fired with genuine affection on social networks by some of the most important chroniclers in Spain and Latin America. Surely the same will have happened in France.
He wasn’t famous by any means, but his prestige spread in the journalistic universe since in the year 2000 he wrote, together with Bruño Patiño, a book anticipating the changes in the industry: “The press without Gutenberg”, he titled it, and it turned out to be a beacon and guide for what was to come.
Jean Francois Fogel died in Paris last Sunday 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 for Latin America that led him to forge links with media and journalists from Spain, Argentina and Colombia, among others. Until last Sunday, he served as 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, whom he had met in 1970, who works in the dissemination and pursuit of excellence. journalistic and is based in Cartagena.
“Jean-François had a deep knowledge of 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 freedom of expression and the quality of democracy in the region and first of all did what we now call digital transformation, of which he became a practical expert, a generous promoter and a clairvoyant guide. He is irreplaceable and we will miss him a lot, but we will always remember him and we are going to pay him the tribute he deserves at the 11th Gabo Festival in Bogotá”, wrote Jaime Abello Banfi, general director of the Gabo Foundation, after hearing the news.
In addition to La prensa sin Gutenberg, he was the author of the books “End of the century in Havana”, about the secrets of the collapse of Fidel Castro, and “El testamento de Pablo Escobar”, about the Colombian drug trafficker, a country with which Fogel had built a strong bond.
Several times his interest in the changes in journalism brought him to Argentina, and each time he visited Clarion to exchange conversations about the transformation of newspapers.
In the last decade worked as an adviser to SudOuest, one of the largest newspaper publishing groups. Until the end, she combined this task with her teaching vocation and her passion for essays and writing.