KABUL (Pajhwok): Journalists on Monday urged the government to support media outlets in different spheres and create a mechanism for female journalists’ work while the Ministry of Information and Culture said it supported the mass media and would not allow the freedom of expression to be harmed.
Afghanistan Free Journalists Association, Journalists Correlation Association and Kabul Journalists Movement held a ceremony to celebrate the National Journalist’s Day in Kabul.
The ceremony was attended by a large number of journalists from different media organizations. Some journalists were awarded appreciation certificates and three journalists were recognized for their best work in reporting, editing and filming.
Muzhgan Baraki, a reporter, said that dozens of female journalists lost their jobs in the past one and a half years and they were currently struggling with economic hardships.
She demanded the caretaker government create a mechanism for the work of female journalists and added that attention should be paid to their economic problems.
Mufti Abdul Matin Qane, a spokesman and policy adviser at MoIC, on the occasion acknowledged that the media was facing many problems and the ministry had made efforts to solve them.
He added considering national interests, they supported the mass media and would not allow the freedom of expression to be harmed.
According to him, in the current year, except for the incident in Mazar-i-Sharif, no journalists had been killed or injured.
Meanwhile, Hujatullah Mujadadi, the head of the Afghan Free Journalists Association, said that in December last year, a program was organized by the European Peace Institute in Brussels, where it was discussed how to achieve sustainable peace.
According to him, on the sidelines of the meeting, the situation of media in Afghanistan was also discussed.
Mujadadi added Afghanistan was able to gain permanent membership of the World Federation of Journalists, which was a great achievement for Afghanistan.
Zarif Karimi, NAI office head in Kabul, said after the political change in the country, the main problem the media community of Afghanistan faced was economic problem that weakened the media.
He said a number of media outlets were closed and a large number of journalists became unemployed, who plunged into economic hardships.
It should be mentioned that among 180 reports, the report “Drug addicted Rukhshana’s three children disappear” by Afsana Haideri, a reporter with Pajhwok Afghan News, was among the top six reports of the year.
Marjan Wafa, a reporter from Kilid Group from Herat Province, won the first place in the reporter section.
Faridullah Mohammadi, the host of TOLO News’ political programs, also won the first place in the program hosts section, and Samim Forough Faizi won the first place in the cameramen section.
sa/ma
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