Bernard Estrade, 65, an Agence France-Presse correspondent who covered wars, conflicts and revolutions around the world, died in Paris March 16 following a long illness. Estrade joined the French news agency in 1970 and began his career as a foreign correspondent in Beirut in 1973. He was one of the few Western correspondents still in Baghdad when U.S. cruise missiles pounded the Iraqi capital at the start of the 1990 to 1991 Gulf War. He witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 when he was Moscow bureau chief and covered the fall of Suharto in Indonesia in 1998. He also reported from Hanoi, Tehran and Nairobi.
Estrade was the husband of OPC member Kate Hunt who is the U.N. representative of Care International. Hunt was an OPC Board member and Head Judge of the OPC Awards judging from 2006 to 2008. Kate wrote to CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon: “The greatest — albeit heartbreaking — honor was to be with him at the very end, holding his hand, and reassuring him that his brilliance, courage, and unflinching standards as a journalist — especially as a war reporter — would be carried forth by a younger generation.”