URUZGAN (SW) – A number of journalists in the Uruzgan complain over the unprofessional behavior of the media officials and the economic situation deteriorates.
“Hekmatullah Pasun, a Reporter in a private media outlet in Uruzgan, says that Journalists are fired without Reason which discourages journalists from continuing their journalistic activities.
He adds: “Some media outlets set difficult conditions in the contracts for employees, which are not in line with the principles of journalism, and sometimes journalists are fired by the authorities without reason. The employee does the job; but if they do not flatter the authorities, they will be fired.”
A group of journalists in Uruzgan, facing similar challenges, express that the income, which they receive from the media outlets, falls short of covering their daily needs. They highlight that, in addition to the low income, the unprofessional behavior of media officials adversely affects both their work and personal lives.
Baryalay Afghanmal, a journalist in Uruzgan, told Salam Watandar: “Some media organizations pay their employees and reporters so minimally that they would earn more through other works. Each media outlet should establish its own standards and pay employees based on the workload.” Baryaly adds that the unprofessional behavior of media officials towards journalists and media employees can lead to psychological challenges.
Although some media officials in Uruzgan acknowledge the mistreatment of journalists, but they attribute these issues to economic challenges, citing the necessity to reduce both the number of employees and their salaries.
Samiullah Rahmani, head of Piston Radio and TV in Uruzgan, says: “The number of employees who used to work in the media was 15 or 16, but now it has reached three; because the media cannot pay their employees.” He adds that there is a possibility that some media officials misbehave with their employees. “… but we have a contract with our colleagues and we treat them well. We accept that we cannot provide them with an income like before, but we will not spare them what we can.”
Ahmad Ludin, the head of journalists’ immunity committee in the south zone, confirmed the misbehavior of the media officials with the employees, adding that this problem has now been resolved.
He says: “We have received complaints from a number of media; but with our mediation, these problems have been solved to a large extent. Some of them have problems on a large scale, or they have problems with personal addresses, which we have also tried to fix.”
It should be mentioned that now, including the National Radio-Television, media outlets are operating in Uruzgan, due to the bad economic situation and the non-payment of the employees of these media outlets, nearly 35 journalists, including three female reporters, have become unemployed.
ENDS
