Afghanistan: Where free expression costs reporters their freedom – News-Decoder

When reporting on government is a crime

Freedom of expression in Afghanistan was considered one of the great achievements of the U.S. deployment of troops there, but that freedom narrowed after the Taliban retook control over the country and imposed many restrictions on the media and journalists.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has said in a statement that currently Afghan journalists who continue to work there do so under an atmosphere of threat and fear.

Like Kawish, Abdullah Hamim worked as a journalist in Afghanistan for nearly 10 years until he, too, had to flee to Pakistan. But thats not his real name. Because he still fears for his safety, he asked that his real name not be used.

Hamim said that while freedom of speech is considered one of the important parts of a society it is limited in Afghanistan. Whenever there is freedom of speech, it can bring a positive impact on the thinking of a society and the institutionalization of good cultures, he said.

Sohailla Yousofi worked in independent media in Kabul after the Taliban came back to power. But she too fled for Paris. There is no law for freedom of expression in the Taliban government, Yousofi said. Journalists are arrested and imprisoned without any crime.

In the past, she said, journalists could freely report on the corruption of government officials. Now there is no possibility that we choose a subject without the order of the Taliban group, Yousofi said. If the international organizations that support journalists do not support us and the media, we will be removed from society every day and the day will come when the other realities of the society will be hidden.

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Afghanistan: Where free expression costs reporters their freedom - News-Decoder