Kabul [Afghanistan], November 2 (ANI): Taliban on Monday pledged to support the freedom of expression under the Islamic regulations, local media reported citing officials.
Talking at a ceremony held to increase coordination between the media and related institutions, the spokesman for the Interior Minister Sayed Khosti said that the Islamic Emirate would not allow anyone to silence the freedom of expression, Tolo News reported.
“The Islamic Emirate supports the freedom of expression based on Islamic values and the country’s interest, and is committed to not allow anyone to make obstacles for the media,” he added.
According to the publication, the journalists and media watchdogs called on the officials of the Islamic Emirate to form a clear scheme for freedom of speech and media policy. “An amendment should be formed for the media. So, based on the scheme of the Islamic Emirate the media should run their activities,” said Abdul Moyed Hashimi, head of Afghanistan’s journalists safety committee.
Meanwhile, Police radio, which had halted operations for nearly three months, resumed broadcasting on Monday, Tolo News reported. However, due to the shutdown of many media organizations which made dozens of media workers jobless, some Afghan journalists have been forced to take hazardous jobs.
Mustafa Jafari, a cameraman, who has worked in Afghan media for around eight years, is currently working as a vendor.
“I was jobless for four months. I felt that I was going to have mental problems because I was home night and days,” Tolo News quoted Jafari as saying. Earlier a journalist union said that more than 30 acts of violence towards journalists have been recorded in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power.
“Afghanistan’s National Journalists’ Union conducted a general assessment over the journalists’ status for Afghanistan across the country and it shows that over 30 cases of violence against journalists happened,” Masroor Lufti, the head of the union, said. (ANI)
Amrullah Saleh asks Ghani to release tapes with Khalilzad, other diplomats
Kabul [Afghanistan], November 2 (ANI): Afghanistan’s former Vice President Amrullah Saleh has asked the ex-president of country Asharaf Ghani to release the tapes of his cover stations on the peace process with Zalmay Khalilzad and other relevant foreign diplomats in particular of the past July and August, reported Khaama Press.
Ghani must do it to counter the growing propaganda that accuses the Afghan side of the collapse, Sale said in a tweet.
“I call on @ashrafghani to release the tapes (esp Jul/Aug) of the conversations with Khalilzad & other relevant foreign diplomats on the peace process to counter the growing propaganda that it was & is all the Afghan fault. I know these tapes exist & hope you have them,” Saleh said in a tweet, according to Sputnik.
It came after Khalilzad and US Secretary of State Antonio Blinken accused Ghani to be behind the collapse of the previous Afghan government. Khalilzad — who served as US former special envoy to Afghanistan — last month had said that people in Afghans were facing greater challenges in the country. He had participated in negotiations in various formats on the situation in Afghanistan. In particular, he called on the Taliban to stop their offensive in the country. (ANI)
