Afghanistan Times
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Media have a great role in development of every state because it plays a key role in reflecting truths. In Afghanistan, freedom of speech was unprecedented, and also one of the greats achievements of the country during past 15 years. It made a tremendous progress.
Afghanistan has never before had more news outlets then now. More than 44 television stations, more than 141 radio stations and more than 200 print media are currently active in the country.
After the collapse of the Taliban regime, media was the fastest growing phenomena, where the previous government and the current one, have been committed to protect freedom of speech and its gain.
The duty of media is to inform the relevant officials over different issues, such as social injustice, child labor, violence against women, street harassment, human trafficking, robbery, kidnappings, road accident, drug smuggling, illiteracy and other social evils. Moreover, media outlets have to play greater role in strengthening the democracy and push the government toward right direction through sound criticism and also balance reporting.
But, however it is not so easy to work in media outlets. Growing violence against news organizations and journalists have reached at boiling point.
On Sunday, Nai, the supporting open media organization in Afghanistan said that violence against journalists has hit a new record in the past ten months, which is equal to the figure of violence taken place in all eight past years across the country.
“377 cases of violence against journalists have been recorded by Nai organization in the past 10 months of 2016, which is equivalent to the violence figure have been taken place in all past eight years across the country,”said Executive Chief of Nai, Sediqullah Tawhidi.
Recently, unknown gunmen shot death a reporter—Yaqoub Sharafat. He was working for Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) network.
It indicates that journalists are dedicated to protect freedom of press, but at the sometime, security organizations should also come up to the fore in protection of journalists. Without doubt, there is commitment to protect journalists, but more effort should be done to safeguard them. Journalists and their rights must be secured. No excuse is acceptable in this regard as it considers as a backbone of a state.
It is a great proverb as saying “if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.” Thus, if the government want to succeed in every fronts, “which already failed”, must give a full hear to the voice of media outlets.
