Like other countries, Afghanistan also celebrates 5th of May “The International World Press Freedom Day”. It is a day to remind the government the duty to respect and uphold the rights to the freedom of press. It’s a day that the country should stand up and say we are democratic and freedom of speech is our priority. But unfortunately, the duty of respect barely is met by Afghanistan government and its people.
Afghanistan media refers to print and broadcast. The media was tightly controlled during Taliban regime. However, after overthrow of Taliban in 2001, the media seems to relax and relatively free. But still, press freedom is threatened by war in Afghanistan with kidnapping and killing of journalists. According to Sediqullah, the head of press and media, last year 73 correspondents were registered for domestic violence; 4 killed, 4 wounded, 33 under investigation, 18 tortured and 14 received dead intimidation. Majority of this violence were undertaken by government bodies and minority by powerful non government groups.
Afghanistan claims to be a democratic country and respects freedom of speech. But unfortunately, this is not the reality in practice. If you publish and say the truth; either you are kidnapped or killed. Security for local correspondents is not guaranteed in both, Kabul and other provinces. To complete the formality, Afghanistan government agreed with NATO to make a committee to meet once in a month to secure the life and position of journalists around the country. But this seems insufficient. In the last couple of years Afghanistan lost its skillful and talented journalists. Students from universities were kidnapped because they exercised publication of truth. Girls journalists were killed because they were women and had dark makeup and free language at media and TV.
So who should say the truth and when this should be said? Would you rather say the truth or die?
