Skip to main content

The coverage of war zone remains a dangerous job for press

This is more then three decades since Afghanistan turned important and key for press coverage but the country has remained a very dangerous place on earth for the journalists.

Many elements are involve threatening journalists life in the ground of news coverage, or investigative work.

Powerful people hate those who unveil their work and clothed activities.

We have several examples in Afghanistan which tell the sadness stories of journalists who lost their sweetness life during the search of a truth.

We can not forget BBC's Abdul Samad Rohani killed in southern province of Helmand province in June 2008.

Local investigation suggest that Helmand police are directly involved in his murder. He has been killed by local police because he discovered a secret jail running by security officers in Nawa destruct of Helmand province.

His killers are still enjoying the power but Rohani's kids never seen their father again. His sine was research of truths and the local official corruption. That's why he has experienced hatred of the powerful people.

A press freedom violation can be an assassin's bullet, aimed to kill an investigative journalist, and to intimidate and silence his colleagues.

It can be the knock on the door from the police, bringing in a reporter to question her on her sources, or put her in jail with or without a proper trail.

It can be a restrictive media law, which puts the power over editorial content into the hands of censors and press courts.

Over the past 12 years more than 1.100 journalists and media staff have been killed in the line of duty.

They died because someone did not like what they wrote or said, or because they were in the wrong place in the wrong time.

The International Federation of Journalists monitors press freedom violations and campaigns for greater safety and for a focus on the in-country journalists and freelances who are at greatest risk and who have the least protection.

This is done in cooperation with the member unions around the world, and with other organizations through IFEX, the International Freedom of Expression Exchange.

The IFJ works for press freedom by trade union development, working for journalists’ rights and social conditions, as there can be no press freedom where journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.

The IFJ is also a founder of the International News Safety Institute, founded in 2003, which promotes practical action world-wide to increase the safety and protection of journalists and media staff.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Modern Day Child Prostitution in Kabul, Afghanistan: Children are used as Sex Workers in Afghanistan to Serve Foreigners

An eyewitness piece: Modern Day Child Prostitution in Kabul, Afghanistan: Children are used as Sex Workers in Afghanistan to Serve Foreigners. “The police told my mother that she will not receive my father’s retirement check for working at the Ministry of Agriculture unless I work as a prostitute serving foreigners. My mother at first refused but she relented once the police told her that I would be able to keep 60% of the pay and be able to keep supporting my mom and 6 brothers and sisters and the other 40% would go to the police,” says Ara. By James Van Thach  Salem-News.com 12-year-old girl named Ara Atta says, “My father was killed by the Americans because he did not stop his car at a checkpoint.  (KABUL) - When we hear about the news in Afghanistan, the mainstream media tells us stories of explosions and deaths of military personnel and civilians. A story that is not being told is of child prostitution slavery in Afghanistan. “There is a police ope
Post a Comment
Read more

Afghanistan: “It’s Just Damage Limitation Now”

By Mark Thompson Source:  time.com   Briton Ben Anderson is a documentary filmmaker (the BBC, HBO, the Discovery Channel), but he turns to the written word in No Worse Enemy : The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan . The book offers a gritty – and grim — assessment of the war. Anderson embedded with U.S. and British troops for months in the southern part of the country from 2007 to 2011. He details corruption, incompetence, fear — by both allied troops and Afghan civilians — and a Groundhog Day kind of existence., where a battle fought for days has to be fought again, later. Most distressingly, he argues that the American and British publics are getting a misleading picture of progress on the ground. Battleland conducted this email chat with Anderson last weekend. Why did you write No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan? I’d been travelling to Helmand for five years, first in 2007 with the Brits, then later
2 comments
Read more

There are non-Taliban poets in the 'Poetry of the Taliban’

By Hanan Habibzai It is truly a matter of controversy as it appears that non-Taliban Afghan poets are presented as Taliban. It is a matter of shock to read in the Independent that Ezatullah Zawab, a permanent journalist and poet, is Taliban poet. It is still unclear how many more (non-Taliban names) are there in the ‘ Poetry of the Taliban ’. Zawab is not a Taliban but a critic of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and the continuous political and social corruption within Karzai’s government. He studied at the Nangrahar University, working as a freelance journalist since 2001 in eastern Afghanistan. His reports mainly published by IWPR and the Pajhwok Afghan News . He was among the first journalists who covered the killing of tens of civilians in June 2008 where American-led air-strike bombed a wedding convoy in Shinwari district in eastern Nangrahar province killing more than 55 civilians including the bride. Most of the victims were children and women. In the aftermat
Post a Comment
Read more