AFGHANISTAN. Kandahar: Nemat Rawan, former TOLO news anchor and a media director at the Afghanistan Ministry of Finance, was killed in unknown gunmen’s attack in Kandahar’s 14th PH district today, police and his relatives confirmed.
The incident happened this Thursday afternoon when Mr. Rawan was on a three-day holiday to Kandahar. According to the police, two attackers stole Rawan’s phone while escaping from the area.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. Nemat Rawan is the fifth journalist to be killed in 2021. This year, on January 1, Bismillah Adil, a journalist from Ghor was killed. Months later, seven of his family members were also killed. Along with this, three female media staff were killed in Nangarhar. All of the incidents are still unclaimed.
In a Twitter post, TOLO News said that Rawan had ended his work in TOLO News three weeks ago before being appointed as media official at the finance ministry.
“Heartbreaking to hear that a friend and former colleague Nemat Rawan was shot dead in Kandahar city today. He left TOLOnews just last month to join the Ministry of Finance as a communications specialist. Was a very polite, humble, and decent young man. RIP,” Lotfullah Najafizada, Head of TOLO News said.
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Statements by Afghanistan National Security Director who recently stated that they will “treat the journalists like terrorists”, and the Taliban’s warning for Afghan media have concerned many journalists.
The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee said that it considers the Taliban’s statement accusing the Afghan media of biased reporting baseless. “Afghan media have respected principles of impartiality and balance in their reporting in the most difficult times and no threats against media and journalists is acceptable,” they said.
“It also requested the National Directorate of Security (NDS) to offer their position about the allegations of an MP about the NDS Director’s remarks about the media and journalists.”
According to the latest indexes by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Afghanistan is the fifth deadliest country for journalists in the world.
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