Journalists Safety Committee reacts to TV channel shut down

KABUL (Khaama Press): The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) expressed profound regret that the Kabul News TV channel has ceased broadcasting saying that the closure of media outlets will leave a void in the country’s reporting and information transmission.
This committee announced that the Kabul News news media has ceased operations after ten years of operation, creating a gap in the country’s information and news.
The director of the news department of Kabul News, a private TV channel, confirmed the permanent closure of the channel’s media activity on Tuesday, November 1, but did not provide any other details.
“Kabul News is dealing with a number of challenges with its broadcasts,” Nikmal said, “and there is optimism that the closure will be temporary.”
He said that this private media outlet will continue its social media activities, despite the fact that, according to AJSC, a number of other media outlets, particularly provincial stations, have recently shut down owing to difficulties, often financial.
Abdul Karim Khorram, a close relative of Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, founded the Kabul News private television 10 years ago, and it started broadcasting in Dari and Pashto Afghan languages.
Kable News was shut down because of “many pressures,” according to a source close to the channel’s management who declined to be identified in the report. The source did not provide any other details about the situation.
Reporters Without Borders recently reported that 219 print, aural, and visual media outlets in Afghanistan have been closed for the past 12 months.
This organization stated that there were 547 media outlets in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban taking control, but only 328 are operational today.
Additionally, organizations in Afghanistan that support journalists and the media have expressed concern over the ongoing suspension of media activities in Afghanistan, citing a number of reasons why private media broadcasts have been stopped.
Earlier, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had released a report in which it said that over the past year, censorship, arrests, threats, and restrictions had exacerbated the press freedom situation and that Afghan news agencies were struggling to operate.