In view of the threats and violence against journalists, President Ashraf Ghani has issued a new decree for their safety.
A special commission to protect the media will also review all cases of journalists killed in the last 15 years.
In view of the threats and violence against journalists, President Ashraf Ghani has issued a new decree for their safety.
A special commission to protect the media will also review all cases of journalists killed in the last 15 years.
Sayed Zafar Hashemi, a deputy spokesperson for the president said, “All problems of the media would be dealt with by the commission. In addition, new rules will ensure safety of journalists.”
Fahim Dashti, head of the national journalists union, says some 30 journalists have been killed since 2001. Their killers were never arrested. In fact, the government has failed to probe the deaths seriously, he says.
Ghani’s new order is a “good omen”, says Dashti. “We take this decree as a good omen. The dossiers of assassinated journalists should be reviewed anew and findings should be shared with people,” he says.
Rahimullah Samandar who heads the Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association believes the decree if implemented would protect unarmed reporters in the field.
The decree followed the death of eight Afghan journalists in the last two weeks. Seven staffers from Tolo TV were killed Jan 20 when their bus was targeted in a suicide car bomb attack on the Darul Aman road in Kabul. On Jan 29, a senior journalist Haji Mohammad Zubair Khaksar, a correspondent for the government-run Nangarhar TV and Radio network, in Surkhrod district, was shot dead by unidentified assailants as he was returning home from a private gathering. According to reports, Khaksar had received threats from Daesh or the fighters aligned to Islamic State (ISIS). The International Federation of Journalists, which condemned the killing, said his murder comes after Daesh had been broadcasting threatening messages for journalists in Nangarhar on, its ‘Voice of the Caliphate’ radio in Nangarhar.
Media law
The Ministry of Culture and Information has recently codified a new bill for media together with some media associations and heads. Dashti of the national journalists union says the bill was published in the official gazette of Ministry of Justice on Nov 7 after approval by the Council of Ministers headed by the president on Aug 12.
Dashti says the new rules lay down a framework for contracts for the media, rights of insurance also in case of injury or death, pension, over-time and salary. “Earlier owners could trample on the rights of employees; impose tyrannical working contracts in the absence of a law,” says Dashti.
Reporters who Killid interviewed confirm the general view that conditions of work are challenging and wages are generally poor in an industry which has seen remarkable growth since the fall of the Taleban regime in end-2001.
Anahir Ferehmand, a reporter with Negah (glance) TV channel told the Killid, “Journalists work in tough situations and get scanty salaries.” Khadem, a former journalist with Erada (will) counts a lack of safety as a big problem for journalists working in the field. “Lack of safety has meant that journalists put their lives on line for a mouthful of food,” he observes. He believes the new law and presidential decree could provide some relief for journalists on the issue of security.
Sidiqullah Tawhidi, the head of Nai, a media watchdog observes, is equally pleased with the new law. “Media professionals are not machines or robots, employed and dismissed when it pleases their employers.”
Najib Sharifi, chief of the Afghan Journalists’ Safety Committee, has issued an appeal to journalists to report anyone who does not enforce the new rules. He says henceforth media owners will be obliged to follow the law and anyone who flouts the rules will be prosecuted.
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