| The message of the conference |
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The message and demands of the participants of the conference: “The future of Afghan Media-challenges and opportunities” 16-17 January 2010 We, the journalists from 17 provinces of Afghanistan participated in the two days conference on “The future of Afghan Media-challenges and opportunities”. This conference which was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs held in Setara Hotel Kabul on 16-17 of January 2010 is an important step to evaluating the activities of the Afghan media in the last eight years. This conference was conducted in Setara Hotel Kabul. The experts discussed the following topics in the conference: The “Legal Situation of Afghan Media”, with a special focus on the Media Law, “Security and Self-Censorship”, “Afghan Media and Corruption”, “The Situation of Women in Afghan Media” and the “Afghan Media and the Lack of Access to Information”. Besides, the participants talked about the behavior of Afghan government, international forces and the Taliban towards the media. The challenges which the journalists experience during their work, were discussed in the conference. All the participants pointed that that media in Afghanistan have had positive achievements and improvements in the last eight years. They all believed that there is a long way to go and a lot to experience before having an appropriate working environment. Based on the topics discussed in the conference, all the participants issued the following points addressing the Afghan government, Taliban, civil society and media institutes and the international society in the country: 1. The journalists are impartial figures. They are connecting the government and the public. They do not have to be harassed or threatened by any parties, government or people. 2. We ask the government to provide physical security of the journalists as it has came in the constitution and media laws. 3. We hope to have the cooperation of the government with the journalists in the provinces and assure them to have access to the information and do their job with confident. 4. It is hoped that the Afghan government is providing enough trainings for the government spokespersons on how to behave and deal with journalist. 5. The conference participants kindly ask the respective institutions to seriously follow the cases of journalists being killed, tortured and harassed and to arrest the barriers. 6. We ask the donor agencies and the international community to continue supporting the Afghan media equally in the provinces. This will help to promote the democracy and the freedom of speech in the country. 7. We ask the international forces to deal equally towards the Afghan journalists and the journalists from any other country. This will prevent the murder cases like it happened in Kunduz and other areas. 8. We ask all the media unions and institutions in Afghanistan to come together protecting the free speech and free media and to make one media union throughout the country. 9. The participants of the conference ask all the journalists to help protecting the national unity and values by preventing linguistic, tribal, race and religion prejudices while reporting. 10. We ask the journalist to up date their information about the legal documents and the media law in particular. It is very important for them while working as journalists and reporters. 11. To develop the capacity of the journalists, we demand that all the institutions which are working the filed to conduct programs which help the journalist to educate themselves on the various topics related to their tasks. 12. The message of the conference has to be sent to the respective institutions and departments. |