KABUL (SW) – A proposed press conference on the situation of media in Afghanistan has not been allowed to take place in Kabul by the authorities, said the organizers.
A meeting on the situation of journalists and media in the country was scheduled to be held on Wednesday in Kabul by the Afghanistan Federation of Journalists and Media, but members of the federation say they have not been allowed to meet and the Islamic Emirate has canceled the meeting.
Sayed Ali Asghar Akbarzada, a member of the federation’s leadership council, said the conference was scheduled to be held today and all local and foreign media representatives were present for news coverage, but unfortunately the officials of the Islamic Emirate gave their verbal directives against it. “The conference was canceled and we were not allowed to hold it.”
Members of the Federation say they have been instructed by Islamic Emirate officials that they have no right to hold any meetings until further notice. They called on the Islamic Emirate to announce its final decision on establishing a law or procedure in this regard as soon as possible in order to eliminate and prevent such problems from occurring.
We wanted to have the views of the officials of the Islamic Emirate on the reason for the cancellation of this meeting, but the emirates’ spokesmen did not respond.
The Federation consists of 16 media organizations that have been active for about a decade.
Today’s meeting was to be held with the participation of eleven member organizations of this federation.
ENDS
