Journalists barred from covering Ghazni ceremony

GHAZNI CITY (PAN): Some journalists on Saturday said they were barred from covering a just-started historic festival of celebrating the selection of Ghanzi city as the Asian capital of Islamic Civilization.

The reporters said they were ordered to leave the governor’s house, the venue of the festival that began on Saturday.

Local officials said only a private channel, 1TV, had been authorised by the central government to broadcast the event and other journalists had no permission to cover the week-long event

The journalist association head in Ghazni, and BBC reporter, Asadullah Jalalabad strongly condemned the government for the decision. He said reporters had decided to boycott activities of the governor’s house in protest against the action.

He insisted they would continue to cover the festival by defying the government’s orders because the ceremony was a matter of pride for the Afghans.

A reporter with Tolo TV, Saleha Sadat, said she was forced to go out of the venue along with her cameraman “All journalists should be allowed to cover the event”, she said.

A Hewad TV reporter in Kandahar wondered why reporters were barred from coverage after they had been invited to do so.

myn/ma

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