News cameraman to shoe shiner

KABUL (Tolo News): Siam Ahmadyar, the former cameraman of a private TV channel in Kabul, due to economic challenges is now polishing boots on the streets of the capital. He says that economic challenges forced him to take this job to earn bread for his family.
“All of our efforts, all the sacrifices we made for the freedom of expression, were stamped wrong,” said Siam Ahmadyar, a former cameraman of Ariana News. Some criticize the work of media-supporting institutions and media rights figures, saying that some of them sent their relatives abroad under the name of journalists. “After the Islamic Emirate came to power, due to economic challenges and the restrictions imposed on the media, some media outlets shut down and a number of employees of the media resigned from their jobs and were forced to do hard work,” said Farakhunda Mohebbi, journalist.
“We urge the government of the Islamic Emirate and the institutions that support journalists and the media to pay serious attention to journalists who are the voice of society,” said Zaki Rahmani, a journalist. However, some media outlets say that they are trying to help the situation of media employees. “We do our best to help our colleagues who have lost their jobs through international organizations to get their jobs back,” said Hujjatullah Mujaddidi, a leading member of the Federation of Journalists and Media of Afghanistan.
“We ask that serious action be taken to address the challenges,” said Masroor Lutfi, a media officer at Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union. This comes as in more than eight months, dozens of media outlets have been shut down due to economic challenges or other reasons, leaving hundreds of media workers unemployed.