A number of reporters who have been to Ghazni to cover the ceremony of naming the Ghazni city as the capital of Islamic civilization have said that they have not been able to cover the event.
According to reporters, event officials denied their presence inside the large hall where officials and foreign guests were gathered.
Hasht-e- Subh Daily Newspaper correspondent Hussein Seerat said: "when reporters wanted to enter the hall, event officials, in cooperation with the security forces prevented their entry into the hall." Even those journalists, who have been invited by the Minister of Information and Culture in Kabul and had gone to cover the event, were not allowed to participate the event.
Danish Karokhail head of Pajhwok News Agency Said: "Except One TV Channel which had exclusive coverage of live events, other reporters were not allowed to cover the event."
According to Karokhail, local reporters of Ghazni, reporters who had come from neighboring provinces and even journalists who had gone to Ghazni with the Minister of Information and Culture had not been allowed inside the ceremony hall."
Journalist organizations and freedom of speech and free media support institutions consider such treatment with reporters completely against universal standards of freedom of speech and legal standards of Afghanistan. They strictly criticize Information and Culture Ministry regarding this issue.
Mr. Sediqullah Tawhidi head of Afghanistan Media Watch Organizations said: "Access to information is guaranteed in the constitution and mass media law in the country, but today’s behavior of officials with reporters in Ghazni showed that they are not committed to respect those rights."
Mr. Fahim Dashty, chief executive of the Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union (ANJU) also considered the behavior of the ceremony officials in Ghazni with reporters against the applicable laws in the country and said: “Minister of Information and Culture who assumes himself supporter of free media and freedom of speech, had showed his enmity with reporters and free media several times in different events which Ghazni incident is one of them.”
Mr. Dashty asks free media in the country to condemn the illegal behavior of officials of Information and Culture Ministry with reporters in Ghazni and strongly resist them.
