43% of Afghan media outlets closed down within 3 months of IEA takeover: UN

Forty-three percent of Afghan media outlets disappeared within three months of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) coming into power, a UN official said on Saturday.

That means more than 6,400 journalists lost their jobs, Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Mette Knudsen, said at a ceremony in Kabul Saturday to mark World Press Freedom Day that falls on May 3.

She said that four out of five women journalists are no longer working.

“The events of August 2021 have upended hard earned gains of decades,” Knudsen said adding that Afghan media which was seen as one of the success stories of the past two decades is now “struggling for its own survival.”

Richard Bennett, UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, in a video message, said that the IEA has “promulgated new and restricted guidelines for the media and access to information has become more challenging, impacting negatively on the dissemination of information.”

“We call on the authorities to recognize and respect a free pluralistic and independent media and we urge the authorities to comply with Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights instruments and protect and promote freedom of opinion and expression with equality between women and men as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Afghanistan is a state party,” Bennett said.

Hujatullah Mujaddidi, head of Afghanistan Independent Journalists Association, said that the media outlets currently operating in the country are facing financial problems, a shortage of skilled staff and restrictions imposed by the IEA.

IEA officials, however, have repeatedly said that they are committed to ensuring freedom of media in Afghanistan, provided its according to Sharia rules and national interests are observed.