• August 25, 2023
• General News
• 3183196105195625

Journalists have claimed there is “corruption” in distributing assistance by media-supporting organizations to media workers.

“I have not received any aid yet. Even if assistance is allocated for journalists, it is being looted by the media- supporting organizations– some of whom the Afghan media community does not even recognize,” said Mohammad Raqi, a journalist.

“The foreign organizations who claim that they have financially supported the Afghan journalists — we have not witnessed such a program and have not received any aid from any organizations,” said journalist Mustafa Shahryar.

The Afghan journalists said that despite the media workers facing heavy financial problems, there is no transparency in the aid process.

“I have been dismissed from the Kabul news TV channel. Our organization has been closed, and I have not received any assistance from IFJ or any other organization,” said Ahmad Najim, a media worker.

“If any organization is providing any aid, it must have been for certain people who have received it. Unfortunately, the Afghan journalists facing severe challenges have been forgotten,” said Abdul Raziq Sadeqqi, head of a radio station in Badghis.

The International Federation of Journalists reported that since August 2021, nearly 200 journalists have been granted amounts averaging €350 to individual journalists who remain in Afghanistan, mainly to help feed themselves, overnight shelter, and medicines.

The IFJ cited the figures from a survey, which it said is conducted in affiliation with the Afghan National Journalists Union.

The report detailed where its funds were allocated, including:

“Evacuation grants of up to 2,000€ to pay for flight costs for the handful of journalists who have obtained visas.

Nearly 40,000€ administered by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) to provide respite accommodation for exiled Afghan journalists in Islamabad.

With financial support from UNESCO, two guest houses in Islamabad to accommodate exiled journals opened in August 2023.”

However, some of the media-supporting organizations in Afghanistan said there had been no financial assistance in the ongoing year to the Afghan media community.

“The Afghan Independent Journalist Union has not received any assistance from the IFJ in 2023. It has no information about distributing this money to the 200,” said Hojatullah Mujadidi, head of the Afghan Independent Journalist Union. “These programs have not been implemented in coordination with the media-supporting organizations in Afghanistan, and the Afghanistan National Journalist Union is not aware of it,” said Masroor Lutfi, head of Afghanistan’s National Journalists Union.

With the fall of the former government, Afghan media organizations have been engulfed with financial and economic challenges that also drove most of them to halt their operations.

Source: Pakistan Observer