Afghanistan

2012

  
(AFP/Pedro Pardo)

Journalists still murdered where impunity reigns

Almost half of the 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2012 were targeted and murdered for their work, research by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows. The vast majority covered politics. Many also reported on war, human rights, and crime. In almost half of these cases, political groups are the suspected source of fire. There has…

Read More ›

A memorial for Afghan journalist Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak in Kabul. (AFP/Shah Marai)

Time to reassess U.S. military counterinsurgency tactics

One year ago, on July 28, 2011, Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, 25, was killed by American troops during a brutal close-quarters battle with a Taliban suicide squad backed by gunmen. Khpalwak was one of 22 people killed in the hours-long siege on government buildings that included the governor’s office and police headquarters in Tarin Kot, capital…

Read More ›

Afghanistan’s draft media law slowed, but not stopped

For now, the Afghan government’s apparent attempt at railroading through a less-than-media-friendly new Mass Media Law without consultation seems to have been sidelined, though not derailed. On Sunday in Kabul, representatives of the Ministry of Information and Culture received recommendations from civil society workers and journalists, including some from the provinces, which were drawn up…

Read More ›

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, is welcomed by Japan's Emperor Akihito in Tokyo in 2010. Japan is one of Afghanistan's biggest donors. (AP/Koji Sasahara)

Afghan donors must address media repression

One thing that had better be high on the agenda this weekend at the meeting of 70 or so international aid donors for Afghanistan in Tokyo is the recently released official draft version of the Mass Media Law (a copy of the draft can be found here). I mentioned the new draft in a June…

Read More ›

Danish Karokhel (AP/Stuart Ramson)

Afghan media is under political and economic pressure

Danish Karokhel, who won a CPJ International Press Freedom Award in 2008, messaged this morning concerned that the news agency he runs, Pajhwok Afghan News, and some other media outlets have been referred to the Attorney General’s Office by the Ministry of Information and Culture for reporting on an alleged bribery scandal involving a member…

Read More ›

CPJ
Gang members at a prison in Izalco shortly after a government-brokered truce. (Reuters/Ulises Rodriguez)

Why journalists need new ways to stay safe

After the Salvadoran online newsmagazine El Faro exposed a secret government deal with criminal gangs last month, its staff faced repercussions that illustrate the new and complicated risks facing journalists worldwide. El Faro’s report, which said the government provided more lenient treatment of imprisoned gangsters in exchange for the groups’ agreement to slow down their…

Read More ›

Afghan journalist’s death must lead to better combat rules

Wednesday, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) released its report, “Death of an Uruzgan Journalist: Command Errors and Collateral Damage,” by Kate Clark on the July 2011 shooting death of journalist Omaid Khpalwak. Clark’s details on how Khpalwak died corroborate and then go beyond the investigation already conducted by the U.S.-led NATO forces who were responsible.…

Read More ›

Hervé Ghesquière (AFP/Miguel Medina)

French former hostage ready to go back to the front line

“Of course you have to go to Afghanistan or to Syria,” said French TV reporter Hervé Ghesquière, who was held hostage for 547 days in Afghanistan together with his cameraman, Stéphane Taponier, between December 2010 and June 2011.

Read More ›

Video: Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s María Salazar-Ferro names the 12 countries where journalists are murdered regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. Where are leaders failing to uphold the law? Where are conditions getting better? And where is free expression in danger? (4:46) Read CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index. And visit our Global Campaign Against Impunity and see how…

Read More ›

Getting Away With Murder

CPJ’s 2012 Impunity Index spotlights countrieswhere journalists are slain and killers go free

Read More ›

2012