KANDAHAR - The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC), with support from International Media Support (IMS) group, organized a one-day workshop to discuss journalists’ safety, future activities and condition of the media in the southern region post-2014.

Fifty participants from Kandahar’s members of parliament, civil society, journalists association, representatives of Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), university teachers and UNAMA, discussed the issues of protection of media workers, information collection from their sources, surviving pressure during the conflict, keeping the balance while reporting and other related issues.

The issues of future press freedom and funding for the media were amongst the concerns expressed by the participants during the workshop.

“Most of the media channels will lose their funding from foreign donors and there are chances that they will fully collapse. This will have serious implications on press freedom and only those who get funding either from warlords, businessmen or political parties will survive,” Mr. Ahmad Farzan, a member of civil society in Kandahar expressed his concern.

Media has flourished tremendously for the past decade in Afghanistan and can be considered as one of the major achievements of the Government. However, with the transition process taking place, most of the donors have cut their funds to several media outlets. If this phenomenon continues, the free press will perish and will be replaced by a certain mafia who could then misuse the media for their own interest. It is also a concern that the media channels did not foresee the situation in a wise manner which can result in their downfall.

At the same time, some participants also expressed their ideas of finding alternative ways to support the media in the future.

“It is vital that the international community withdraws their support gradually which will provide a window of opportunity for those media outlets that totally rely on the funds provided by the donors to find alternative ways to sustain their activities in the South,” said Mr. Abdul Rahim Ayoubi, a member of parliament.

Effective marketing strategy post 2014 was one of the ideas expressed in the workshop as one of the ways to provide income for the media. This will target businessmen and investors to invest in advertisements which can be a good support and source of income for the media. The participants also agreed that in order to survive they have to improve the quality of their activities.

The workshop concluded with the participants’ concurrence to review their policy guidelines and adapt to the new environment.

By UNAMA Kandahar