In the past two days of successive meetings that was held by Committee to Protect Afghan Journalists with the help of ANJU and Nai which is the supporter of free media in Afghanistan a discussions took place according to coverage of events after second round of elections. A number of prominent media Journalists have participated the meetings in which discussed for securing the public interest during events after second round of elections and agreed as follow:
Resolution of media officials for coverage of second round elections events
Afghanistan is in a critical condition and the role of media has become even more important than any other times. The media and journalists can create crises and can also wisely deal with the cases to prevent emergence of crises. At this point, it is important that the Journalists and media should keep away from any racial, ethnic, political and religious affiliations and Pay attention to the rights of people to access information.
The ultimate goal of journalism is to serve the public interest so it is important that the journalists must be careful while coverage of news after elections, and removing problems should be their fundamental pillar of professional work to provide a fair pictures of events without overindulgence.
By considering the above facts and the critical situation in the country, we journalists and media committed agreed on the follow articles:
Those who rises ethnic hatred should not be invited to roundtables, meanwhile, the roundtable announcers or journalists should maintain professional objectivity and to keep the balance of discussions. And if the guests speeches are offensive, violent or inciting ethnic discrimination the announcer must prevent such statements.
Routines of discussions must be preplanned so that just problems and solutions be considered and it must not prepare the ground for negative theories to irritate the minds of public.
Publishing or broadcasting any news about the second round of elections from unreliable sources or rumors should be strictly avoided.
Publication or broadcasting of unreliable percentage about the votes of candidates should be strictly avoided.
Enlarging news and issues of fraud which have no valid documents should be avoided.
The analysis or opinions should not be incorporated as facts in news or reports.
The Journalists and media are obliged to unveil any lack of transparency, breaches and fraud during elections with valid documents
Journalists and media must reflect the legitimate demands and fundamental rights of people which are reflected through civic movements.
To find the clarity of these issues the journalists can ask the responsible institutions of elections for more details about the complaints for pursuing the issues.
Right now the following Media and advocacy institutions of Journalists agreed on above articles:
-Shamshad TV
-One TV
-Tolo TV
-Lemar TV
-Ayena TV
-Metra TV
-Aryana TV
-Tamadon TV
-Khorshid TV
-Kylid Radio
-Amozgar Radio
-Pazhwak News Agency
-Mandigar News Paper
-8-Subh News Paper
-Arman-e-Mili News Paper
-Kherad weekly Magazine
-Afghanistan’s National Journalists Union
-Nai / Supporter of free media in Afghanistan
-Afghan Journalists immunity committee
In the following days the above articles would also be shared with other Media and journalist’s advocacy institutions to receive their support. In other hands, the contents of this resolutions would be discussed by holding a meeting with participation of representatives from Independent Elections Commission, Media Commission of IEC , presidential press office, United Nation’s representatives for Afghanistan, Dr.Abdullah’s and Dr.Ashraf Ghani’s campaign officials to attract their supports.
