30 violence cases against journalists under new admin

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghanistan National Journalists Union (ANJU) on Wednesday said 30 cases of violence against journalists have been registered in the country under the new administration and the Taliban were involved in 90 percent of the cases.

MasroorLotfi, spokesman for ANJU, told a news conference in Kabul today that 20 percent of the cases were registered in Kabul and the rest in other provinces.

Since the establishment of the new government, 30 cases of violence against journalists have been registered in Afghanistan, of which 90 percent have been committed by the Taliban and the rest by unknown individuals, he said.

“Of these cases, 40 percent involved physical attacks and about 40 percent involved verbal disputes. In all of these cases, one journalist was killed and another was injured in Nangarhar province,” he said.

Lotfi said he conducted a survey by telephone with reporters who were victims of these violence cases.

The level of violence directed to journalists under the new administration had no matching in the last 10 years, he said.

He added that access to information was the right of every citizen of the country and no one should be deprived of it.

A legal mechanism that could prevent discrimination against journalists should be created, he said.

The ANJU also conducted a survey last month that showed 65 percent of journalists in the country lost their jobs due to security threats and some other problems.

mds/ma

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