22:40 20/08/2021
Afghan journalists say they are living in fear and are angered by the slow and complicated process of moving to a new safe place.
"I am very disappointed", a journalist who has worked with an international media told VOA. "I don't know what will happen to me. I am really afraid that my life is in danger."
The journalist, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, says she and her family left Herat the day before the province was overrun by the Taliban. Before that, she says she had received threats from the Taliban over the phone and in person.
The journalist was transferred to Kabul. But even Kabul has already fallen into the hands of the Taliban.
Even in Kabul, the journalist says that she received threats and that Taliban fighters visited the area where she and her family are staying. "I was scared when they told me that the Taliban are in the neighborhood."
"We stay in a room like prisoners. We can't get out." said the journalist, who reported for an international media and news agency. "I want us to evacuate to a safe place."
Transfer of power
The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the government fell.
At a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday, the Taliban said journalists are free to work as long as they are objective, promote national unity and do not report against Islamic law.
But media rights groups and journalists are wary, pointing to threats, attacks and killings carried out by the Taliban in recent years.
At the press conference on Tuesday, a journalist noted that the Taliban spokesman had taken the place of Dawa Khan Meenapal, the previous government's head of media relations, who the Taliban killed in Kabul on August 6. Before working for the government, Meenapal was a well-known journalist for Radio Free Europe's Afghan service.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Thursday that Taliban fighters shot dead a relative of one of its journalists in western Afghanistan. Other family members of the journalist, who currently works in Germany, are in hiding, the German broadcaster said.
The Taliban have raided the homes of at least four journalists and there are reports that fighters beat two journalists covering an anti-Taliban protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a statement.
A journalist who has worked for Deutsche Welle and other international and local media outlets in Afghanistan's eastern provinces does not think the Taliban are committed to freedom of expression.
"It will no longer be possible to work as a journalist. The situation is getting worse day by day and I am losing hope." he told VOA.
In the two decades since the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan has built a broad media scene, with female journalists taking a central role. The country was ranked 122nd in the list of 180 countries in which the first country is the cheapest, in the latest index published by the organization Reporters Without Borders.
But an increase in threats and killings of journalists since the peace process between internal Afghan factions began in September 2020 had already raised concerns about the future of journalism. Hundreds of journalists either left the profession or fled the country in recent months.
The Deutsche Welle reporter told VOA that he moved with his wife and family to Kabul for security reasons.
"We were balanced and fair in our reporting, but there are some groups within the Taliban who do not know professional journalism. Those groups can cause me problems." said the reporter.
He added that he wanted to leave because of threats to his safety. "Let's see if anyone can help us move to a safe place."
Western media have pressured the United States and other governments to help evacuate hundreds of journalists who have worked with their staff in recent years.
Deutsche Welle is among Western media outlets that have appealed to their governments for help. The news agency said Tuesday it was working with the German foreign ministry to evacuate employees and their families who are "under acute threat".
"The fact that they worked for a Western broadcaster could make them subject to torture and deadly attacks." the broadcaster said in a statement.
Deutsche Welle said Taliban fighters had searched houses in several neighborhoods, looking for its employees.
The co-chairs of the bipartisan US Congressional Caucus on Freedom of the Press have also called on President Joe Biden to evacuate the media in "extreme risk due to their reporting".
Those who have worked with the US media are eligible to apply for a program called Priority 2, or P-2, announced by the State Department this month. The program gives journalists and their families the opportunity to relocate to the United States.
An Afghan journalist working in Kabul, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals, told VOA that it is difficult to meet the application requirements for the program.
"You have to settle in a third country and wait there for 12 to 14 months at your own expense. Journalists in Afghanistan are living on a minimum wage and they cannot afford to live in a third country for many months." said the reporter.
He believes he is in danger and is considering all options to leave Afghanistan. "I have not written something against them (Taliban), but I have defended the republic, democracy and that is enough to target them."
"We are in danger here", added the journalist, saying that the United States and other countries should speed up the evacuation process.
Reporters Without Borders Asia program coordinator Steven Butler acknowledged that the P-2 program is not "a practical option" for many journalists, but said the United States could use the "humanitarian" evacuation option.
This option allows an individual to enter the United States temporarily for emergency or humanitarian reasons.
"We hope that a number of journalists can benefit from this", Butler told VOA, adding that so far "very few" journalists have been evacuated.
Reporters Without Borders is receiving hundreds of requests for help from journalists in Afghanistan. "We are working to identify those who are most at risk and pass the information on to the US government so that they can expedite their evacuation," says Mr. Butler.
Media and non-governmental organizations are also trying to support Afghan journalists. The Open Society Foundation announced a $10 million emergency fund this week to help evacuate media personnel and those who have worked for civil society organizations./VOA
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
