Taliban pledge to support freedom of expression based under Islamic regulations

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Taliban on Monday pledged to support the freedom of expression under the Islamic regulations, local media reported citing officials. Talking at a ceremony held to increase coordination between the media and related institutions, the spokesman for the Interior Minister Sayed Khosti said that the Islamic Emirate would not allow anyone to silence the freedom of expression, Tolo News reported.

"The Islamic Emirate supports the freedom of expression based on Islamic values and the country's interest, and is committed to not allow anyone to make obstacles for the media," he added.

According to the publication, the journalists and media watchdogs called on the officials of the Islamic Emirate to form a clear scheme for freedom of speech and media policy.

"An amendment should be formed for the media. So, based on the scheme of the Islamic Emirate the media should run their activities," said Abdul Moyed Hashimi, head of Afghanistan's journalists' safety committee.

Meanwhile, Police radio, which had halted operations for nearly three months, resumed broadcasting on Monday, Tolo News reported.

However, due to the shutdown of many media organizations which made dozens of media workers jobless, some Afghan journalists have been forced to take hazardous jobs.

Mustafa Jafari, a cameraman, who has worked in Afghan media for around eight years, is currently working as a vendor.

"I was jobless for four months. I felt that I was going to have mental problems because I was home night and days," Tolo News quoted Jafari as saying.

Earlier a journalist union said that more than 30 acts of violence towards journalists have been recorded in Afghanistan since the Taliban came to power.

"Afghanistan's National Journalists' Union conducted a general assessment over the journalists' status for Afghanistan across the country and it shows that over 30 cases of violence against journalists happened," Masroor Lufti, the head of the union, said. 

(With inputs from ANI)

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