African journalists have been paying tribute to Khalil Hachimi Idrissi, President of the Atlantic Federation of African Press Agencies (FAAPA), who died on Saturday April 8, 2023, in Rabat, Morocco.
The journalists, who received the news of his demise with shock, have on various digital media platforms, expressed their condolences to the bereaved family and relatives, as well as FAAPA and the Moroccan News Agency (MAP).
“This a big loss to the news agency fraternity in Africa. Mr Khalil championed professionalism through capacity building and knowledge exchange across board. May His gentle soul rest peacefully with the Almighty,” said Beatrice Asamani Savage of the Ghana News Agency.
“Rest in Peace. You will forever be remembered,” Sackoh Turay, a Sierra Leonean journalist, wrote on the ‘Réseau JS’ platform, a forum of African journalists committed to the sustainable development of culture and sports on the continent.
Oulidehi Magloire, an Ivorian journalist, also expressed shock at the passing of Hachimi Idrissi, saying: “It is very sad and I can just wish that his soul Rests in Peace.”
Gortor Wilfred, a Liberian journalist, described the late Khalil Hachimi as a “genius who will forever be missed by the inky fraternity”.
“In fact, he demonstrated passion for journalism in all its forms, and will be missed dearly,” he wrote on the ‘Réseau JS’ platform.
Other African journalists in the Diaspora, paying tribute to the late Khalil Hachimi on Facebook and Twitter, eulogised the late FAAPA President for his humility and sense of duty.
He will be remembered for the dynamism he brought to bear in the activities of the FAAPA, they invariably stated.
Khalil Hachimi, who was 67, has since been buried in line with Islamic tenets.
A graduate of the Institute of Geography at the University of Paris I-Pantheon-Sorbonne, he was elected President of FAAPA in October 2014.
He was very early involved in developing media and was, in the early eighties, one of the actors of the creation and development of intercultural and community communication in France where he worked in several radio stations.
“He was a columnist, a reporter and then Editor-in-Chief for many years of the weekly newspaper “Maroc Hebdo International,” the FAAPA said, in a statement, copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
FAAPA, set up in October 2014, has become an essential basis for the development of communication and a professional platform to encourage the exchange of experiences, information and multimedia products.
It seeks to promote the exchange of ideas on the future of news agencies and the role they must play in the 21st century.
He has to his credit several publications, including “Billets Bleus” Moroccan chronicles, 1994-2000.
In 2011, he was appointed Director-General of MAP, a position he executed professionally, making the Moroccan News Agency one of the best public news poles in Africa.
He created, in 2000, “Aujourd’hui Le Maroc”, a generalist French-speaking daily.
In 2007, he was President of the Jury of the Grand National Press Prize before being elected, in 2008, President of the FMEJ (Moroccan Federation of Newspaper Publishers), a position to which he was re-elected in 2011.
