Chris Otton appointed as the new deputy global editor-in-chief at Agence France-Presse

Chris Otton

Chris Otton, a journalist with a distinguished international career, started this week as the deputy to the editor-in-chief of Agence France-Presse, Sophie Huet.

Otton, a 52-year-old British journalist, first worked in London for the press association and later joined the AFP Asia-Pacific desk in Hong Kong in 2001.

He was appointed as a correspondent in Kabul following the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and later became news editor at the Jerusalem bureau during the peak of the Second Intifada (2003-2006).

He then spent two years in Johannesburg as news editor for Southern Africa, and five years as the bureau chief in New Delhi (2012-2017). He was then promoted to deputy editor-in-chief for North America in Washington during Donald Trump’s presidency, before taking on the same role for Europe, based in Paris, starting in 2021.

Two other journalists are joining the editor-in-chief’s team.

Rana Moussaoui

Rana Moussaoui, 44 years old, has gained extensive experience in the Middle East. A Lebanese national, she began her career in Beirut at the newspaper L’Orient-le Jour before being recruited by AFP to its regional desk in Nicosia in 2005.

She returned to Beirut to cover Lebanese and Syrian news for 10 years, serving as a reporter and later as the deputy bureau chief. She was part of the team of special correspondents who covered the fall of Mubarak in Egypt. For the past five years, Moussaoui has been responsible for covering artistic and cultural news from Paris.

Elodie Cuzin

Rana will be joined on Sept. 25 at the editor-in-chief’s department by Elodie Cuzin, who also brings a wealth of experience gained overseas. Cuzin, 43 years old and a French national, worked as an independent journalist for nearly 10 years in London and later in Madrid, where she joined the AFP bureau in 2011.

Appointed to Washington in 2015, she specialized in domestic politics and was one of the very few foreign correspondents accredited to follow Biden during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign. For the past two years, she has served as the deputy head of the new editorial department at AFP in Paris dedicated to news in the digital world and culture.