When you already have an Indonesian university diploma in oriental languages and are writing a doctoral thesis at the School of Political Science in Paris on the subject of "Contemporary piracy at sea in Central Asia", you are spoiled for choice.
The civil service? Maybe not all that exciting for someone who likes to be on the move. Teaching? Sometimes it can be a bit of an ivory tower. Eric Frécon found his own solution, journalism, and somewhere just made for an architect's son who spent his childhood in Malaysia: Asia…preferably with pirates. The titles of his publications since then speak for themselves: "East Asia Hit By Piracy" (Les Echos, 04-2000); "Real Pirates In Jolo" (Libération, 08-2000); "The New Pirates In The China Seas" (Histoire, 10-2000) and more, all brought to life by revelatory experiences in the field, including  a period spent with Interpol's TE (Terrorism) division, time with the policy department of the French embassy in Malaysia, and participation in the diplomatic game Ressac at the Military Academy, all experiences that Eric intends to put to use during his expedition to maritime Southeast Asia, supported by the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation. This is a project that he intends to undertake in the spirit of a real piece of photojournalism, "With the time and opportunity to take a step back and achieve the level of analysis that you can still attain in the written press." As for the future, Eric sums it up in a few, very telling words: "There are so many subjects."

Achievements since winning the grant
Since being awarded the grant, Eric has written a study on piracy in Southeast Asia, Pavillon Noir sur l’Asie du Sud-Est (Irasec-L’Harmattan, Bangkok-Paris, 2002; currently being translated). He is also the author of various reports on the same theme for Journal du Dimanche and Match du Monde, as well as a documentary shown on France 2 and France 5 (Menace Pirate sur le Détroit). Today, amongst other things, Eric is working on two documentaries, on the Karen ethnic group of Burma and Islam in Indonesia, as well as a travelogue on the Strait of Malacca with illustrator Sébastien Brunel.