2022

Since the invasion on February 24, 2022, AFP has deployed a permanent team of between 20 and 35 reporters in and around Ukraine. More than 80 special correspondent missions have ensured AFP has a constant presence at the front. These multimedia teams have published more than 450 features from 130 datelines during the first nine months of the war.

Digital investigation teams have produced some 1,150 factchecks about the war.

• The war in images seen through the lenses of AFP's photographers

• AFP journalists were the first to uncover the horrors of Jablonska Street in Bucha. They also produced an investigative piece on the victims.

• AFP's multimedia team was also the first to report the bloody bombing of Kramatorsk station.

• AFP also covered the war as seen by the people of Russia and the territory occupied by the Russian Army

AFP is always there when news breaks, reporting from the four corners of the globe. From comprehensive and in-depth coverage of elections in France, Brazil, the US to the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress and the protests in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini.

2022 also saw the death of Elizabeth II, the endless saga of Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, the retirement of Serena Willams and the break-up of K-pop group BTS.

The queen is dead. God Save The King! A look back at a historic week in the United Kingdom

Scoops, exclusive investigations: reliable news thanks to an unparalleled network based in 260 locations around the world.

AFP's exclusive video of former Chinese president Hu Jintao being firmly led out of the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress, was picked up all over the world.

Coup in Burkina Faso: for hours, AFP was the only media to have images of the new junta leaders parading in the streets of Ouagadougou

Chad: AFP was first with images and first to report the death toll from the bloody crackdown in October

Syria: An exclusive investigation revealed the use of 'salt rooms' as torture chambers against prisoners

Taiwan: AFP had exclusive images for 48 hours of Chinese military helicopters near islands claimed by Beijing

Sri Lanka: AFP provided unrivalled multimedia coverage of anti-government demonstrations

Sports: exclusive AFP pictures of Anita Alvarez, the US swimmer who fainted and was saved by her coach, had a huge global impact and sparked considerable emotion

Historic flooding, unprecedented drought, huge wildfires, irreversible icemelt, alarming deforestation: AFP covered the series of extreme weather events and devastation caused by the human race, catastrophic for the planet and its people. Rather than limiting the coverage to the devastation, AFP journalists also reported widely on potential solutions to mitigate the crisis

• Pregnant women trapped in the hell of Pakistan's floods

• US firefighters race to protect Yosemite's giant sequoias

• Fire and destruction at Europe's biggest sand dune

• French fishing ban unites fishermen, biodiversity activists

To show how lives have been turned upside down by climate change, AFP reporters have been to the edges of the Antarctic, out to sea with beluga whales, to the depths of the boreal forests, and to India's Rajasthan to meet the original eco-warriors. Our teams have also travelled along the length of the Tigris and Nile Rivers, once the cradle of human civilisation now seriously under threat.

• Canada's Hudson Bay a summer refuge for thousands of belugas

• India's Bishnoi community, the original eco-warriors

• Twilight of the Tigris

• Nile in mortal danger, from its source to the sea

• Subarctic boreal forest, vital for the planet, is at risk

• Receding ice leaves Canada's polar bears at rising risk

Finding the story where it's happening, with a human touch.

Migration

From Central America to the US, from Africa and the Middle East to Europe, in the jungle or on the high seas, AFP has published a series of features to show the risks run by migrants dreaming of a better life.

• Captagon connection: how Syria became a narco state

• AFP, which has for decades maintained a presence on the ground in Afghanistan, kept its bureau in Kabul to report on life under the Taliban

• Tutankhamun: Egyptians bid to reclaim their history

• Deep dive into the heart of the conflict in Mali

• First car made in Togo

• Horseshoe crabs: 'Living fossils' vital for vaccine safety

Technology in all its aspects:

• 'We don't eat lithium: S. America longs for benefits of metal boon'

• 'Bad buzz': Gaming industry reels from 'Grand Theft Auto' hack

• Flight tracking exposure irks billionaires and baddies

With its unrivalled network of 130 journalists working on digital investigation, AFP is leading the fight against disinformation in 24 languages, especially at election time around the world, from Kenya to France and the Philippines, not forgetting Brazil and the US mid-terms. Disinformation is also a key topic for the AFP wire.

Kenya : Old video manipulated to sound like official announcement of Kenyan election results

Niger: President Bazoum not Nigerien? An inflammatory accusation in the Sahel, already riven by intercommunal conflicts

Africa: Jobseekers in Africa suffer at the hands of online scammers

Brazil: No, Lula did not wear an earpiece during the presidential debate

United States: Donald Trump's midterm election fraud claims debunked

Philippines: Philippine government imposter site targets voters with 'cash handout' scam

Egypt: No, frozen bread does not cause cancer

Egypt: No, these images do not show the world's richest man (or John Kerry, or the head of the US army in Iraq) converting to Islam

France: Exaggerations, errors and estimates made by the ruling parties against the main left-wing opposition

With the 'Objectif Desinfox' project that brought together AFP and other French media to fight against disinformation, Factchecks were also produced in video. AFP has also published free-to-access online training courses about digital investigation.

AFP has deployed 150 people from 30 countries to Qatar to cover the World Cup, a huge sporting and also political event. The Agency has provided comprehensive coverage of the on-field action in text, photo, video and graphics, but also the controversies surrounding discrimination, human rights, and the carbon footprint of this global event.

A few highlights of the sporting year 2022: Novak Djokovic expelled from Australia for not respecting vaccine regulations, retirement of Roger Federer, another giant of the tennis world after the departure of Serena Williams, the skating prodigy Kamila Valieva caught up in a Winter Olympics scandal after her positive drugs test and the rebirth of the Women's Tour de France after a 33-year absence.

Women's sport

AFP won the Alice Milliat prize for its coverage of women's sport. The prize was created in 2021 to mark 100 years since the sportswoman battled to get women admitted to the OIympics.

Diversity

Jessica Lopez is AFP's new diversity editor, a new job at the central chief editor's department to improve diversity and the representation of women in all AFP's media and languages.

Social stories

The new Social Stories format designed for social media is now available in French and English. AFP offers features from France and the rest of the world, a news round-up and explainers in less than two minutes.

Podcasts

Daily Monday to Friday podcast in French, “Sur le Fil” (On the wire), interviewing AFP experts and using video to provide stories and sounds from around the world.

AFP published a five-part series in French and English called “Crossroads France”, looking at the several hot button issues ahead of France’s presidential election. The last episode about water wars in the south-west was finalist of an environment and radio prize.

The audio team keeps exploring different audio venues such as the Twitter Space organized with social media ahead of the midterms, with two AFP reporters in the US.

A selection of the most prestigious prizes won by the Agency in 2022.

AFP, which has made the future of the planet one of its editorial priorities, won the Covering Climate Now (CCNow) prize for its coverage of the threat climate change is posing to coastal cities.

In photo, Brendan Smialowski won no fewer than 10 prizes awarded by the White House News Photographers' Association (WHNPA).

Two AFP photographers, Sodiq Adelakun Adekola and Amanuel Sileshi won prizes at the World Press Photo for their work in Nigeria "Afraid to go to school" and in Ethiopia "Searching for peace amidst chaos" respectively.

Photographer Sameer al-Doumy, forced to leave Syria in 2018, won the ICRC Humanitarian Visa d'Or award for his series 'Fatal Crossings' about migrants trying to get to England from Calais.

Yasuyoshi Chiba won second place in the photo category at the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents.

Three AFP photographers, Andrej Isakovic, Frank Fife and Paul Ratje won prizes at the Istanbul Photo Awards.

Angelos Tzortzinis won first place in the category Sports Pictures Story at the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar. Two other photographers Andrei Isakovic and Loic Venance won prizes at the AIPS Sport Media Awards.

Finally, four photographers, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Andrei Isakovic, Mohd Rasfan and Oli Scarff won prizes at the 79th edition of the Pictures of the Year International, the world's oldest photojournalism competition.