In the last 12 weeks, seven journalists and media workers, and three family members of a journalist were killed in Afghanistan. Almost all of the cases have been considered targeted killings, both by the government and evidence. Despite repeated requests from the journalistic community and the families of the victims, the Afghan government has not been able to identify the perpetrators and take them to the judicial procedures.
However, the US Embassy in Kabul has posted a series of messages on its official Facebook page in defense of freedom of expression and media in Afghanistan, called for an end to violence against journalists. The messages urged the Afghan government to identify perpetrators of violence cases against journalists and bring them to justice. Also, the US Embassy emphasizes to end up impunity for crimes and violence against journalists and supports the prompt investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of journalists’ assassination.
Nai Supporting Open Media in Afghanistan has long called on the Afghan government to end up the impunity for crimes and violence against journalists and media workers, and investigate the violence cases against journalists, and bring their perpetrators to court.
On the other hand, Nai has always asked the government to assure journalists and media staff’s safety. Besides, Nai calls on the government to take precautionary security measures to ensure the safety of journalists, so that journalists are less vulnerable to sceptical and targeted attacks, which have been severely increased recently.