KABUL (SW): NAI-Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan has conducted a poll over the course of several months which showed that private medial employers have violated the rights of their employees and have not complied with the rules and regulations for setting up and operating private media outlets.
This survey has covered the inter-agency violence against the journalists until August 2017 covering a wide variety of topics including freedom of speech, failure of media employers to sign employment contracts with the reporters, non-payment of salary, the signing of contracts contradicting the employment laws, unilateral contracts and forced labor.
According to the survey that NAI has conducted, 5.87 percent of the journalists have not received a copy of their employment contracts or did not sign a contract in the first place. The survey showed that 100 percent of the journalists have not received their compensation per the laws of the establishment of private media outlets.
The poll has been conducted by interviewing 40 journalists from 40 reputable media outlets in the country.
Ariana TV, 1TV, Saba TV, Watan TV, Afghan TV and Radio Nawbahar are among the private media outlets mentioned in this report as the media violating their employees’ rights. However, officials from these media outlets have rejected the allegations of their employees and have called these claims baseless.
At the end of the report, NAI said the results of their survey showed that the prospect of journalist’s job security is challenging and unfortunate in this country.
NAI said if the situation of Afghan journalists continues to be in this way, the journalists’ community will face a “disastrous” future.
NAI has called on media owners, journalists, and the government to comply with the media employment regulations and labor law.
ENDS
