A group of journalists in the central province of Ghazni on Saturday said they are worried about security and economic problems at a time when they face a severe lack of information over the past 18 months after political developments in the country.
The journalists said the community needs attention from relevant institutions as they celebrated National Journalists’ Day on Saturday.
Rahmatullah Marjankhil, a journalist in Ghazni, said the National Journalists’ Day needed to be celebrated widely, but this did not happen as journalists’ community is coping with “dozens of challenges” in Afghanistan.
He said that last week’s incident in Balkh showed that journalists are facing with security issues, too, amongst other problems they are coping with.
“We witnessed that some journalists started working as vendors,” he added, asking the Taliban to not disturb journalists.
Another journalist in the province, Laila Sultani, said she lost her job after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and many journalists are faced with an uncertain future in the country.
“We are faced with many problems and are waiting to return to our jobs one day,” she added.
Meanwhile, Abdul Khaliq Wisal, editor-in-chief of a local media outlet in Ghazni, said they are in talks with Taliban officials of the information and culture directorate to improve the situation of media in the country. He asked the Taliban to support journalists in access to information.
Wahidullah Juma, a reporter from Afghan Pajhwok News in Ghazni, said that lack of access to information is one of the biggest problems journalists are faced in the country.
He said that the Taliban has not paid attention to their demands after their talks about having access to information.
“We spoke with the relevant officials about lack of access to information but no attention was paid to this matter,” he added.
This comes as Afghanistan Journalists Center in a report on Saturday said violence against journalists and media has doubled over the past year compared with the same period in the previous year.
