168 cases of violence recorded, says AJC

KABUL (TOLOnews): The Afghanistan Journalists Center expressed concern about media rights violations in Afghanistan and said that in 2023 it recorded 168 cases of violations of journalists’ rights in the country.

The report stated that one journalist died, 19 journalists were injured, there were 78 cases of threats and 61 cases of arrests of journalists recorded.

The Afghanistan Journalists Center stated that “in 2023, the recorded cases of violation of the rights of journalists and the media show a significant decrease compared to the 260 events recorded in 2022, but there is no change in terms of quality and structure.”

This comes as journalists and media workers also urged the interim government to take solid steps to eliminate the existing challenges.

“All of the activities belonging to the media and journalists should be pursued through the commission of media violation and this commission should be incentivized and any media and journalist who commit a violation, should be investigated through this commission,” said Rasul Shahzad, a journalist.

“The government should increase access to information. The economy of the media organizations should be empowered and supported,” said Mustafa Sharyar, a journalist.

The Islamic Emirate in reaction to the AJC’s report said that the detention of the journalists has not been due to their media related activities.

Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that no media has come under pressure and that all media are “freely active”.

“Some of the cases that happened in 2023 were because of violations. Sometimes, the journalists have been arrested on criminal activities or legal cases for a temporary time. The detention has not been permanent,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to the reports of the media watchdogs, around 86 TV channels, 257 radio stations, 33 journalists and 46 printing media organizations are currently active in Afghanistan.

At least 220 media organizations were closed after the Islamic Emirate came to power.