Afghanistan’s new media law sent to supreme leader for approval

The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told ArianaNews on Friday that the country’s new draft media law was compiled and sent to the supreme leader for approval.

Mujahid emphasized that all media principles have been observed in this law.

He said that this law will be made available to all media outlets after its ratification in the next few days, and according to this law, all foreign and international media will be allowed to operate in Afghanistan, but on the condition of observing the internal laws of Afghanistan.

“The media law has reached the presence of the supreme leader and is under ratification, the law will be good, and after it is ratified, it will be available to the media, and all media principles have been observed in this law,” Mujahid told ArianaNews.

A number of organizations that support the media and journalists meanwhile say that the media law should be approved immediately because, according to them, dealing with the problems of the media and journalists in the absence of the law is facing many difficulties.

“Although it is said that there have been very small adjustments in this law, in any case, existence law of any kind is more important than the absence of a law for the Afghan media, and we expect that this law will be implemented in the promised time and that Afghan broadcasters will be able to continue broadcasting within the framework of a law,” said Hujatullah Mujadadi, a member of the Afghanistan National Journalists Union.

Simultaneously, some media workers see the approval of this law as a positive step towards obtaining accurate information and journalistic work, adding that the implementation of this law can be effective in solving journalistic problems.

“For two years, we journalists have been operating in Afghanistan without any law, which unfortunately has made our work very difficult. We call on the Islamic Emirate to ratify the public media law as soon as possible so that the media and journalists know the framework of their activities and can operate on the basis of that law,” said Nasir Ahmad Salehi, a journalist.

“There should be a law that defends the rights of journalists and that our journalists are not unjustly punished in the provinces, Kabul and other cities,” said Sudabe Nazhand, a journalist.

About a year ago, the officials of the Ministry of Information and Culture declared the previous government’s mass media law to be enforceable, but the new media law is being approved while some journalists and officials of media-supporting institutions have criticized the authorities of the Islamic Emirate, adding that this law is one-sided and their suggestions, especially the views of women, have not been heard.