Journalists’ Movement: Media Support Organizations Manipulating the Fate of Journalists

Bayan News – The Journalists’ Movement in Afghanistan states that some media support organizations are seeking to exploit the names of journalists. The organization stated in a statement today, Tuesday (February 26th), that certain individuals, under the name of the Afghan Independent Journalists Union, are playing with the fate of real Afghan journalists.

The statement reads: “The self-proclaimed and illegitimate Union of Afghan Independent Journalists, which lacks any legitimacy and recognition among real Afghan journalists, and its leader, whose name is even a disgrace for Afghan journalists and the media community, has been wasting the rights of Afghan journalists for several years and engaging in deceitful practices, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, trading on the destiny of Afghan journalists and the media community.”

According to the statement by the Journalists’ Movement in Afghanistan, some organizations today held an extravagant and costly festival at the Intercontinental Hotel, which is essentially another blow to journalists’ rights, in Kabul, using the money of oppressed journalists who can barely afford to eat.

The movement states that the organization’s president organizes such events, either to gain favor from foreign organizations in order to secure their projects or sometimes to conduct showy trips within the provinces or secretly in Pakistan, and considers them to be unsuccessful endeavors.

According to the Journalists’ Movement in Afghanistan, organizing such events, where real journalists are struggling economically and facing hardships, is a great betrayal to the media and journalists.

The Journalists’ Movement in Afghanistan demands that the caretaker Taliban government revoke licenses for such organizations, which are considered a disgrace for the media community, and take action against media mafias.

This protest comes as a media organization called the Union of Free Journalists organized a program titled the Best Media Festival.