SAARC govts urged to help Afghan journalists

KABUL (Pajhwok): SAARC countries have been urged to plead with the Afghan caretaker government for ensuring media freedom in Afghanistan.

The call came at a day-long online international dialogue organised by the SAARC Journalist Forum in India.

Following last year’s political change in Kabul, speakers said, journalists in Afghanistan had lost their freedom and were living in other countries.

Mohammad Graan, a journalist from Afghanistan who is currently in Pakistan, more than 100 Afghan media professionals were currently living in the neighbouring country in difficult conditions.

An Afghan journalist living in Norway urged SAARC journalists to support their colleagues from Afghanistan. Khalil, promised: “We will discuss their problems with Pakistani rulers and also inform the Afghanistan Embassy about this.”

Recent attacks on journalists in the Indian state of Maharashtra were also denounced at the conference. Concerns were expressed at the closure of media outlets in Bhutan.

SAARC Journalist Forum President Raju Lama is said to have written a letter to the United Nations for the resolution of the problem being faced by Afghan journalists.

PAN Monitor/mud

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