Kabul: Because the Taliban took over, at least 318 media outlets were closed in 33 of 34 provinces in Afghanistan, said a report.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a report on Thursday said, “51 TV stations, 132 radio stations, and 49 online media outlets have stopped the operation.
The crisis has hit the most difficult newspaper by just publishing,” Tolo News reported.
Expressing concerns over the status of the Afghan media community, IFJ said that only 2,334 journalists were still employed “from the highest pre-Taliban 5069.” 72 percent of journalists who lose work are women, according to IFJ.
“243 women are still employed by the media,” added the IFJ report.
“From the threat to the restrictions on Draconian reporting and from the economic collapse of the withdrawal of funding funding, images are disasters, not only for journalists who have lost their jobs or are forced to escape but also for citizens who are rejected access to information,” Ifj Secretary General Anthony Bellancer said.
Furthermore, the Afghan media community asked the Taliban to help the media get access to information, reported Tolo news.
“If direct steps are not taken towards the media situation in the country, only a number of media organizations will be active in Afghanistan in the near future,” said Hujatullah Mujadidi, Head of the Afghan Independent Journalist Association.
“We call the international community to invest in the media to protect the access process to information in the current Afghanistan situation,” said Hafizullah Barakzai, head of the Afghan journalist council.
Some journalists asked the international community to overcome the collapse of the Afghan media community.
“If the restrictions imposed on the media remain valid, the media organization will stop operating and will collapse,” said Samiullah Pam, a journalist.
“We called the international community to seriously consider the situation of Afghanistan media.
We asked the government to help the media in access to information,” said journalist Naseem.