For 40 years, hand-held camera, Roger Motte traveled the world, for Antenne 2 then France 2. He carried out reports in Lebanon, Yugoslavia, Zaire. He filmed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the siege of Sarajevo. Through the quality and sensitivity of his images, this reporter specializing in battlefields has marked several generations of journalists. When turning a page, Roger Motte came to confide his joys, his doubts but also his remorse, to the “Comptoir de l’info”.
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Curiosity and doubt. These are the two driving forces that pushed Roger Motte to go – to testify – on all the major conflicts on the planet over the past four decades. “We always wonder if we are useful” he says, if “our images will help to stop the war”. And he admits: “I don’t think I answered in the affirmative”. Before adding: “But if we don’t go, it will be worse”.
“I filmed crying, filmed laughing, filmed scared”
For the television news of France 2, for the programs “Envoyé Spécial” and “13 h 15”, the image reporter journalist (JRI) never considered himself as a simple observer, who, coldly, would film the suffering of the others. On the contrary, Roger Motte has always experienced the event deeply.
At the microphone of François Beaudonnet, he recounts these moments of rocking when, sometimes, he decided to abandon the report, to put down his camera and to intervene.
“At the info counter” is the first native (audio) podcast of France Télévisions. In the form of a journalistic interview, an actor who produces public service television news — a major reporter, a cameraman, a presenter — comes to give himself up, tell, reveal the way he works. In a sound atmosphere of a coffee counter, he confides his doubts, his joys, but also his fears when he is on the ground or in the studio. Since May 2021, the podcast “At the info counter” has also received journalists from Radio France (France Inter, France Info, France Culture) at its microphone.
The series is produced by François Beaudonnet, editor-in-chief Europe, columnist for franceinfo (channel 27), senior reporter for France 2 and columnist for the program “Nous, les Européens” on France 3. Former correspondent in Rome and Brussels, he began on the radio where he presented the 1 p.m. news on France Inter.
Follow us on Twitter: @Comptoirinfo
Send us an email: [email protected]
This episode was directed by Marion Gualandi
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