Afghanistan joins global press freedom coalition

KABUL (Agencies): Agreement of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for the membership in the Global Press Freedom Coalition was signed by Second Vice-President Sarwar Danesh. By signing the agreement, Afghanistan officially got membership in the Global Press Freedom Coalition.

In signing ceremony of the agreement held with participation of a number of high-ranking government officials, Canada ambassador and British charged’ affairs to Kabul, a number of members of government and media joint committee, representatives of Afghanistan Journalist Federation, members of Afghanistan Journalists Safety Committee and media organizations, Second Vice-President delivered speech said he was honored that Afghanistan declared its support from a great, human and world value, saying that the government was committed to its implementation in the country.

“Signing this document will add to our responsibilities in defending and supporting freedom of expression and supporting journalists and media as well as gives us hope that we have the support and cooperation of a global coalition in this regard,” Danesh said.

Pointing to importance of freedom of expression, Danesh said the values had an unprecedented role in all political, legal, cultural and social sectors, adding that freedom of expression and press freedom could pave the way for lasting peace in the country.

Danesh enumerated war, terrorism and violence against journalists and media, obstacles towards access to information, economic problems of media, problems of female journalists and others as a range of concerns and serious challenges facing freedom of expression in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Second Vice-President stressed that freedom of expression was a red line for Afghanistan government in ongoing peace talks and the people of Afghanistan would never be ready to deal this great achievement.

In the ceremony, acting minister of foreign affairs by expressing happiness over membership of Afghanistan in Global Press Freedom Coalition pointed to part of the government’s commitments towards supporting freedom of expression and press freedom in the country, saying that the achievements were the results of continues struggles and sacrifices of Afghanistan people.

In the ceremony, acting minister of information and culture also delivered speech and while praising Second Vice-President for his efforts towards supporting freedom of expression and press freedom stressed the ministry of information and culture would seriously make effort towards implementation of the document articles.

It is worth mentioning that Global Press Freedom Coalition has been created by initiative of Britain and Canada and currently 34 countries of the world got members of the coalition.