8 Subh; Kabul: Reporters Without Borders published the “2021 World Press Freedom Index” on Tuesday. According to this ranking, Afghanistan is in 122nd place and has maintained its previous position. Afghanistan is still one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, it said.
Reporters Without Borders has surveyed journalism in 180 countries over the past year. According to the study, the journalistic profession is the main “vaccine” for the misinformation ‘virus’.
In 73% of the countries surveyed, the “vaccine” was reported to have been severely disrupted in 73 of the world’s 180 governments and in other 53 countries, it is in a rough situation.
Regarding Afghanistan, Reporters Without Borders has said that the targeted killing of journalists threatens freedom of press in the country.
Reporters Without Borders reports: “In Afghanistan, in addition to the COVID-19 virus, which has killed at least dozens of journalists, there is another virus that is harming Afghanistan from within: the virus of extremist violence that targeted journalists, especially female journalists.”
At least six journalists and media associates were killed in targeted attacks in 2020, and four more were killed since the beginning of the year, according to Reporters without Borders.
Reporters Without Borders have called for an end to the killing of Afghan journalists and called on Afghan authorities to launch a serious investigation into these cases.
At the same time, Reporters Without Borders has called on the United States, Germany and France to support the International Criminal Court’s call for adding the recent crimes into the investigation in Afghanistan’s case.
