Journalists in Afghanistan put lives on line to bring news
From the comfort of our living rooms, we learned about the fall of Afghanistan from journalists who put their lives on the line to bring us the news.
Many have died in the pursuit of facts from the front lines in this war and those before it.
Some are foreign correspondents. Others are native journalists whose lives not only are at risk because Afghanistan is in chaos, but also because journalists are targets for those who want to control the narrative without oversight.
Toofan Omar is among them.
Earlier this month, unidentified gunmen shot and killed Omar, a manager of the privately owned radio station Paktia Ghag Radio, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, which also reported that journalist Nematullah Hemat had been kidnapped.
The Committee to Protect Journalists quoted Reuters and Abdul Mujeeb Khelwatger, director of the local press freedom and training group NAI about the attacks.
At the time, on Aug. 8, when the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan but there was still a government in Kabul, Afghan government officials suspected the attackers were members of the Taliban.
They shot Omar, who also worked as an officer for NAI and as a prosecutor at the Parwan Detention Facility prison complex, while he was traveling to Kabul from the nearby Parwan province, according to those sources.
The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that Taliban fighters kidnapped Hemat, a reporter for the privately owned news channel Gharghasht TV, from his family’s home in Lashkar Gah, in southern Helmand province, according to Reuters and Khelwatger.
Khelwatgar told CPJ that he did not know whether Omar’s killing was related to any of his jobs.
CPJ also reported that Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed on July 16 while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in Spin Boldak. Siddiqui won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 2018.
“The death today of Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui is a tragic notice that even as the U.S. and its partners withdraw forces, journalists will continue to work in Afghanistan, documenting whatever comes next at great risk to their lives,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’S Asia program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Combatants need to take responsibility for safeguarding journalists, as dozens of journalists have been killed in this conflict, with little or no accountability.”
I appreciate the sentiment but doubt that these combatants – Taliban fighters and Afghan troops – will ever care about the safety of journalists.
And with the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban now in charge, there will be no accountability. The future for local journalists has