Olivier Royant, what the hell were you thinking of? How much did the Taliban pay you to publish their propaganda for them? You are a filthy traitor to France and its long history! 
“3 Septembre 2008 Exclusif : nos journalistes ont retrouvé les talibans qui ont abattu les dix soldats français---L'événement. Eric de Lavarène a rencontré un des assaillants qui ont tendu un piège fatal aux hommes du 8e RPIMa le 18 août dernier en Afghanistan.”
And below is one of the offending photos where you see a Taliban killer wearing the uniform of one of the 10 dead French soldiers while Véronique de Viguerie snaps away oblivious of the pain she will cause to the dead soldiers families.
Joel Lepahun, the father of one of the killed soldiers said, "It's a terrible shock to see our children's killers parading their uniforms, their weapons." The eight-page Paris Match spread included images of insurgents holding guns, walkie-talkies, helmets and even a wrist-watch which had belonged to some of the ten French troops who died in an ambush 30 miles from Kabul on August 18. Following the photo shoot, Eric de Lavarène callously proceeded to interview the killers as if it were the aftermath of a football game. French Defence Minister Herve Morin said the magazine had scored a great victory for the Taliban in their propaganda war. "Should we really be doing the Taliban's PR for them?" he added. "The Taliban are waging a PR war with this kind of stunt. They know that public opinion is probably the Achilles' heel of the international community fighting in Afghanistan."
There was outrage across France on Thursday when Paris Match magazine chose to display full colour photographs of the Taliban showing off uniforms, guns, helmets, radios and even wristwatches belonging to the dead soldiers. 21 soldiers were also badly injured in the ambush.
As a matter of fact, you can’t entirely blame the stupid journalists, Eric de la Varenne and Véronique de Viguerie, although they should have known better, because the final blame rests with the Editor, as Alain Genestar found out. Maybe, Olivier Royant, you should have stayed at Radio Gilda because you didn’t learn any ethics or morality in you Columbia MBA course.
PS The good news is that both Ahmad Shah and Mullah Rohoullah, the commanders of the Taliban ambush, were killed along with six others in air strikes in Nijrab district on August 30, only 12 days after the ambush.
Olivier Royant is named editorial director at Paris Match
