Last week in Laghman province, Radio Heela stopped its activities due to financial crisis and closed.
Violent incidents such as misbehavior and beating of journalists continuously occurring. The government, however, has promised to improve the current situation but unfortunately such cases are still happening.
Mr. Basir Ahmadi, a presenter of Ayna TV, was beaten by two armed individuals on 19 November 2021 in front of his house in Makroryan area of district 9 in Kabul city. He has wounds on his chain and nick.
As such, apart from the government officials side, there have been some threats against the media workers by others too.
Last week, Gull Ahmad Almas, a freelance reporter in Ghor province, prepared report on a family economic condition and poverty situation but later he was threatened by the members of that family and forced to leave the province.
Saber Fahim, a former employee of NAI (a media support organization) was wounded on 13 November 2021 by a Magnetic-Improvised Explosive Device (M-IED) targeted a bus in Kabul city.
In addition to the above incidents, the hottest issue during the last week, was that the Ministry of Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) had published a guideline for media workers and media house with eight articles limiting media programs production but it caused a big criticism of the media community. The IEA spokesperson, in reaction to this criticism said that this guideline is just a request but it is not binding.
East Zone
After the collapse of the previous government, around six radio stations have been closed due to financial crisis and censorship in the east zone that as a result a total of 60 male and 8 female media workers have lost their jobs.
In addition to this, tens of other media workers in Nengarhar, Laghman and Nooristan provinces who worked with the national and international media entities, have lost their jobs.
Last week, in Laghman province, a radio station called Heela, stopped its activities and closed. The managers of this radio said that due to financial crisis and daily increase of censorship on media activities, they had to stop their activities. They said that previously, they had more employee who produced political programs but due to financial crisis, their employees left and they had to broadcast music for the missing program slots and now that they are banned for broadcasting of music, therefore, they had to close their radio. A total of 16 media workers including two women, were working in this radio.
In the meantime, the provincial focal point of the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) in Laghman province, who had attended the meeting at the provincial governor office on November 17, had discussed the current problems of media workers and also provided information about AJSC activities to the governor of Laghman Qari Zainulabidden and other officials.
Northeast
Kunduz: The media workers in Kunduz province are worried about the guideline issued by the Ministry of Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice. The Directorate of Information and Culture in Kunduz emphasize on the implementation of articles in this guideline. Pertaining to this issue, a number of media workers in Kunduz express their concerns and say that they media houses are already suffering from shortage of media workers and financial income and the government officials should assist in improvement of the current situation and resolving the problems, instead of imposing new limitations.
Mr. Hidayatullah Ziarmal who is the manager of Radio Kunduz and owner of Oranoos TV said during a meeting with the AJSC representatives that the media houses have a lot of problems and there is need to do fundamental works for their sustainability.
Badakhshan: The provincial Director of Information and Culture, Mr. Muezuddin Ahmadi said to the provincial focal point of AJSC during a meeting that no media houses have the right to produce and broadcast any news and report against or in opposition of the government. Mr. Muezuddin said that women can work in some media houses but men and women should not be mixed at work. He said that mixed working of men and women is against the sharia law.
The Badakhshan Director of Information and Culture says that women should not go outside the studio for preparation of reports and they can stay inside and present educational and religious programs.
According to the statement of government officials in Badakhshan province, they media houses should make themselves in Islamic manner and should broadcast their programs after review and censoring by the Directorate of Information and Culture.
In addition to this, the guideline issued by the Ministry of Promoting Virtue and Prohibiting Vice has also raised concerns amongst the media owners and they think that the financial crisis and further limiting media activities could lead to the closure of more media outlets. They say that there need to be fundamental solutions for these problems.
West Zone
In the west zone, access to information is still difficult like the previous week and civilian and military institutions of the government are not sharing information with the journalists. There are no direct addresses of assigned government officials to share information with the journalists and in many governmental offices, there isn’t sufficient technical capacity to prepare and provide the requested information to the journalists. Because of this problem, many important incidents and issues are not covered by the media.
Since the beginning of the new government, all media houses are directly or indirectly censored and not allowed to publish any program without consultation with the Kandahar Directorate of Information and Culture. In early day of the new government, they media houses were officially informed to stop broadcasting music and avoid negative propagation against the government that later it raised criticism amongst the media workers and advocates. Although the Kandahar Directorate of Information and Culture removed its official order but still the media houses and journalists are facing indirect censoring and work in an uncertain situation.
During last week, the media workers were still facing some cases of violence and the biggest problem is that no perpetrator of violent act against the media workers have been arrested and investigated.