Ayaz Gul
VOA News
June 5, 2020
ISLAMABAD – A global media advocate said Friday the coronavirus pandemic has infected at least 70 journalists in Afghanistan, fueling troubles of a community already under attack from years of violence and terrorism.
Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, made the revelation on a day when Afghan officials confirmed the number of COVID-19 infections across the war-torn country have reached close to 19,000, with more than 300 deaths. The outbreak reached Afghanistan in March.
“According to the information gathered by RSF, at least 70 Afghan journalists have been infected by Covid-19 since the end of March. … This means that Afghanistan’s journalists have been hit harder by the coronavirus pandemic than any other media community in the world,” the watchdog said.
The France-based organization lamented in its statement that last week was deadly for Afghan media personnel, with two killed by an Islamic State-claimed bombing and two killed by COVID-19.
“Meanwhile, nearly 50 journalists in the Kabul region who are infected with the virus say they are not being treated properly, either for lack of money or lack of medical supplies,” it added.
Journalists in Kabul have complained they are not being provided with adequate protection kits by their media groups, nor has there been any assistance from the government.
“The media have few resources and cannot even pay our salaries. And the unions and associations say they are broke, that their funding comes from membership dues that journalists are no longer paying,” the RSF said quoting infected journalists and saying they spoke on condition of anonymity.
“I’ve been going to the hospital for five days for a test, but the hospital says it has no tests. I cannot get hospitalized and I cannot afford to buy medicine,” one journalist told the media advocate.
The organization demanded Afghan authorities take steps to protect media workers from both violence and the pandemic.
There was no immediate reaction from Afghan officials to the RSF report.
COVID-19 infections rose by 684% in May, and many more are going untested and undetected because of extremely low testing capacity, warned the International Rescue Committee (IRC) earlier this week. “Afghanistan has one of the highest test positivity rates (40%) of all the countries where the IRC works, suggesting a high level of undetected population infection,” it said.
IS terror
A driver with privately-run Ariana News channel in the Afghan capital and a reporter working for the state-owned RTA TV in eastern Nangarhar province died this week from the coronavirus.
On May 30, a journalist and a media technician were killed, and four others were injured when a minibus carrying employees of privately-owned Khurshid TV hit a roadside bomb. Islamic State later claimed responsibly for plotting the attack.
Since 2015, RSF noted, Islamic State has claimed credit for bombings and attacks that have killed a total of 15 journalists and media workers in Afghanistan, listed as one of the dangerous countries for media workers.
“Afghanistan’s journalists are exposed to a range of evils, and practicing their profession is becoming more and more dangerous. Such a dramatic increase in the number falling victim to bombings or afflicted by disease is unacceptable,” said Reza Moini, the head of RSF’s Iran-Afghanistan desk.
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