Maria Malagardis graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris in 1989, having graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in contemporary history from Paris 1 in 1986. Since 2011, she has worked as a senior reporter for the daily newspaper Libération’s overseas department, focusing on sub-Saharan Africa and Greece. She previously worked as a journalist for the quarterly publication XXI and for Libération’s weekend magazine (2008-2011). She also worked as a journalist for the Prisma Presse group for Geo, Ça M’Intéresse and Femme Actuelle (2001-2007) and as a journalist covering African affairs for Libération’s overseas department (2000-2001). She also worked as a correspondent in Cameroon for the daily newspaper La Croix, Medias France International, La Lettre Afrique Investir (1991-1992), as an overseas journalist for the daily newspaper La Croix, focusing on Africa (1993-1996) and as the South African correspondent for Libération and the BBC’s French service (1997-2000).

She has written two investigative books: Sur la piste des tueurs rwandais (On The Trail of Rwandan Killers), published by Editions Flammarion in 2012: the history of a French Rwandan couple’s fight to track down the suspected perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, hiding out in France; Des héros ordinaires (Ordinary Heroes), in collaboration with Eva Joly (Editions les Arènes, 2009): investigating the heroes of the fight against corruption across Europe. She also wrote Rwanda, le jour d’après (Rwanda, the Day After), published by Editions Somogy in 1996: stories and accounts from the survivors and the perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda.