Robert Holloway, a veteran journalist who has worked around the world, has joined News-Decoder as editor.
A former senior editor and correspondent at Agence France-Presse, Holloway brings vast experience and a worldly perspective to the task of soliciting, editing and producing articles for News-Decoder.
“At a time when social media are changing the way in which many people receive and think about news, there is a great need for well researched, in-depth analysis,” Holloway said.
“News-Decoder is an exciting and innovative project that is designed to do just that, and I am delighted to be associated with it.”
Holloway is a British-born French citizen who joined AFP in 1988 and until recently was director of the AFP Foundation, the not-for-profit, international media training arm of the global news agency based in Paris.
His postings at AFP confirm his international bona fides: Sydney bureau chief, foreign editor, head of the English desk in Paris, United Nations correspondent in New York, deputy managing editor and acting editor in chief.
While acting editor-in-chief, he oversaw coverage of worldwide riots following the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq and tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
As head of the English desk, he coordinated coverage of the peace settlement in Bosnia, the election of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the creation of the euro, war in Kosovo and the death of Princess Diana.
While at the UN, he coordinated the team of AFP journalists and photographers covering the 9/11 attack on the city.
In 2007, Holloway set up the AFP Foundation to help promote international development, focusing on themes such as improving coverage of health, women’s rights, combating poverty and corruption, objective coverage of conflict.
The Foundation’s longest program (2011-13), sponsored by the UN Development Programme, was on media for development in Lebanon. In 2012, the Foundation set up africacheck.org, the first fact-checking organization in Africa.
Holloway began his journalism career covering the 1974 revolution in Portugal. Before joining AFP, he worked as a journalist in Cairo, Beirut and London. He had also worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.
Holloway has been on the governing board of News-Decoder’s not-for-profit parent, Nouvelles-Découvertes, for the past year.