KABUL (SW) – A new social media campaign has been launched to raise awareness about impartiality and protection of journalists amid rise in targeted killings and bomb blasts.
The campaigners behind this campaign dubbed as #SaveAfghanJournalists called the targeted assassinations of journalists as unprecedented. In their views, journalists are under greater security threat more than ever before. They urged both the Taliban and the government to ensure security and safety of journalists and civil society activists.
Ahmad Shah Pason, a journalist and one of the campaign’s initiators, said the government is expected to take steps to support and protect the media community.
Zainallah Stanekzai, a journalist and another co-founder of the campaign, said the objective behind the campaign is to preserve the achievements of recent years in the field of freedom of expression. He added that the warring parties in the country should not silence the voice of journalists and allow them to continue to provide information to the masses.
The campaign has also been supported by the country’s international partners. In this connection, NATO has called for an end to violence against journalists in Afghanistan.
“Civic journalism is not a crime and those who target journalists should be punished,” said Stefano Pontecorvo, NATO’s civilian envoy to Afghanistan. “NATO continues to support Afghan journalists,” he wrote. “Journalism is not a crime, and those who kill journalists in any way are guilty without any excuse.”
UNESCO has also supported the launch of the campaign, stressing that the culture of impunity in Afghanistan must end. It added that democracy and freedom of expression are meaningless without journalists.
Reporters Without Borders has stressed in its annual report that Afghanistan is among the top five deadliest countries for journalists. Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and India are the top five deadliest countries for journalists in 2020, respectively.
According to Interior Ministry figures, 131 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan in the last 19 years. The Taliban are blamed to have killed 67 journalists.
In the last two months, Fereshteh Kohestani, a women’s rights activist, Yusuf Rashid, executive director of the Afghanistan Free and Fair Election Foundation, Rahmatullah Nikzad, president of the Ghazni Journalists’ Union, Fardin Amini, Ariana TV presenter, Malala Maiwand, news correspondent in Nangarhar, RFE / RL correspondent Elyaas Dayee, Yama Siavash, former Tolo TV presenter, and Rafiullah Siddiqui, executive director of Khorshid TV were killed.
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