Helmand Gets First Independent Journalists' Association
Group will help protect reporters’ rights in a difficult environment.
Helmand Gets First Independent Journalists' Association
Group will help protect reporters’ rights in a difficult environment.
More than 100 people are squeezed into a crowded conference hall in Lashkar Gah to celebrate independent media. They have gathered for the official launch of the first association to protect the rights of journalists in Helmand.
Governor Assadullah Wafa is attending, and tells the assembled reporters, “I am happy and proud to be attending your esteemed gathering. Actually, journalism is the voice and mirror of the community. I am very happy because this is the first time in the history of Helmand that a union of the journalists has been established here.”
The Helmand Journalists’ Independent Association was created with support from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
IWPR has been training local journalists in the province since early 2007. Programme Director Jean MacKenzie says reporters here routinely face threats and intimidation; hence the importance of this new organisation.
“I do think the journalists’ association can go a long way to bringing journalists together to discuss ways that they can solve their problems. If the journalists work together with this press association, I think that the situation can become better,” says MacKenzie.
Ariana TV reporter Abdul Wadud Hijran couldn’t agree more. He was one of four journalists invited to Musa Qala by the Taleban in November, when the insurgents were still in control of the town.
He had been nervous about going into Taleban territory, but in fact the journalists only ran into trouble on their way home. Police stopped them at a checkpoint and threatened to confiscate material they had gathered. Hijran and IWPR reporter Matiullah Minapal spent that night in jail.
Hijran says he hopes the journalists’ association can help prevent incidents of this kind recurring in future.
“This union will help a lot to ease the difficulties of journalists in Helmand,” he says.
Governor Assadullah Wafa is attending, and tells the assembled reporters, “I am happy and proud to be attending your esteemed gathering. Actually, journalism is the voice and mirror of the community. I am very happy because this is the first time in the history of Helmand that a union of the journalists has been established here.”
The Helmand Journalists’ Independent Association was created with support from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
IWPR has been training local journalists in the province since early 2007. Programme Director Jean MacKenzie says reporters here routinely face threats and intimidation; hence the importance of this new organisation.
“I do think the journalists’ association can go a long way to bringing journalists together to discuss ways that they can solve their problems. If the journalists work together with this press association, I think that the situation can become better,” says MacKenzie.
Ariana TV reporter Abdul Wadud Hijran couldn’t agree more. He was one of four journalists invited to Musa Qala by the Taleban in November, when the insurgents were still in control of the town.
He had been nervous about going into Taleban territory, but in fact the journalists only ran into trouble on their way home. Police stopped them at a checkpoint and threatened to confiscate material they had gathered. Hijran and IWPR reporter Matiullah Minapal spent that night in jail.
Hijran says he hopes the journalists’ association can help prevent incidents of this kind recurring in future.
“This union will help a lot to ease the difficulties of journalists in Helmand,” he says.
