Afghanistan has lost 60% of its journalists since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 86 of August last year, according to the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) this Wednesday (), noting that women journalists were the most affected.
According to a study by the Paris-based NGO, Afghanistan lost 39,95% of your media and 59,86% of its journalists.
Three-quarters of women journalists are unemployed, amid a deep economic crisis and a crackdown on press freedom, the organization said.
“Of the 15.857 journalists accounted for before 20 from August of 2021, now there are only 4. 759. affected: 76,19% lost their jobs”, RSF reported.
The Secretary General of the NGO, Christophe Deloire, lamented in a statement that journalism was decimated and the media subjected to regulations “that restrict media freedom and pave the way for repression and persecution”.
“The authorities must commit to end violence and harassment of media workers and must allow them to carry out their work unmolested,” he added.
The “carnage” inflicted on Afghan journalism was particularly strong in the case of women: they completely disappeared in 15 of 34 provinces of the country.
“Of the 2.756 women journalists and media workers before 60 from August, only 656 are still working. Of these, 84, 6% work in the Kabul region”, reads the note.
RSF reports the testimony of several refugee journalists in neighbors, but also Meena Habub, director of Rouidad News, a news agency created by her after the return of the Taliban.
“I preferred to stay in my country to continue reporting and defending what women have achieved in last years. The living and working conditions of women journalists in Afghanistan have always been difficult, but the current situation is unprecedented,” lamented Habub.
