Disinterest of Ministry of Information and Culture to the achievements of Afghan Journalists
Recently some of Afghan media outlets and journalists have received great international awards.
Mr. Samy Mehdi from ONE TV channel, Mr. Masud Husaini as a photographer, Aryana TV channel and Hasht-e- Subh daily newspaper, could gain international awards, after some surveys of international organizations about journalists’ activities of plenty of countries around the world.
During last two weeks, different organizations, such as Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union , Nay (the supporter of Afghan media), Afghanistan Human Rights Independent Commission, some of famous media channels in the country and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, appreciated the achievements by conducting ceremonies and declared them as great prides for Afghanistan.
Among them the attitude of Information and Culture Ministry toward those immense achievements of media outlets and journalists of Afghanistan is highly questionable.
As the responsible body, this Ministry, not only, did not appreciate the achievement of great international awards by Afghan media outlets and journalists, but even did not send a single representative to the ceremonies hold by other organizations.
It’s quite normal to think, that the celebration of achievements of international prizes by Afghan journalists, is not the responsibility of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But, when the Information and Culture Ministry is overwhelmed by its indifference and laziness, the Foreign Ministry take the initiative. Even in this case, the Ministry of Information and Culture is not ready to send someone to this event.
Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union, while considering the disinterest of officials from Ministry of Information and Culture and especially of the Minister himself, unfair and as an obvious irresponsibility, believes that these achievements will not be hiden from the Afghan people, even if the Information and Culture Ministry shows its indifference. And they will value thier endeavorer and honest descendant.
Meanwhile, during last two weeks, large number of journalists were strongly complaining about the attitude of the officials from Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs toward them. They say that in the last days, both Ministries had invited them to press conferences, but they were not received very well.
According to these reporters, they have been kept in waiting room for half an hour inside Ministry of Foreign Affairs, untill the checking instruments and the “dogs” were appeared.
These reporters are also complaining that after an invitation to Ministery of Defense for a press conference, there were kept waiting, and at the end, they were told that there is not any press conference today in this Ministry.
This attitude of officials from Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, is not only a degrading one, but it’s an obvious violation of the rights of journalists to having easy access to information.
Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union, strictly condemns these unfair treatment of both governmental bodies with the journalists, and asks the high ranking officials to punish the offenders and do not let them to continue the current attitude.
