Exiting reports indicate that the National Security Council (NSC) has ordered the Ministry of Interior to only let this ministry’s spokesperson talk on behalf of the Afghan Police to the media.
As of now, including the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior, every Police Directory of each province has got its own spokesperson and the media, especially in the provinces receives the necessary information about the activities of police and terroristic activities from these spokespersons.
This decision of the NSC is creating two serious problems:
Firstly, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior in spite of having a lot of capacity would not be able to respond to hundreds of media outlets and provide them with information. If during one day, two or three accidents occur in different provinces and hundreds of media outlets would want to collect information about concerned accidents for limited two or three minutes, responding to all these would be beyond the actualization.
From the other hand, assigning one spokesperson for each province is because they can quickly receive the information and provide the public about the accident accrued on their related area and the province under their control through media. If the providence of information is going to be limited only to the Ministry of Interior’s spokesperson, the existence of other spokespersons would also be questionable, while their existence in order to receive the rapid and quick information is seriously needed.
While the Afghanistan’s National Union of Journalists reprobates the circumscription of providence of any kind of information-but if is against the law of the country- and is taking it as a huge impairment to the flow of information and the right of access to information, is requesting to bring amendments to this decision as soon as possible.
The Executive Council of Afghanistan’s National Union for Journalists
