LONDON: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomed the decision on Wednesday by the US State Department to include Afghan journalists in their Refugee Admissions Program.
The CPJ applauded the US administration “for recognizing its moral responsibility and taking swift action to ensure that journalists affiliated with US media outlets in Afghanistan are not left behind,” Michael De Dora, CPJ’s Washington advocacy manager, said.
“Given the potential for violence against journalists following the US military withdrawal, it is imperative that the process for this priority designation be expedited. We urge the State Department to announce specific application details as soon as possible.”
The Afghan journalists eligible for asylum in the US now include current and former employees of US-based news organizations, US-based aid and development agencies, and other relief groups in Afghanistan.
In April, US President Joe Biden ordered the full withdrawal of approximately 3,000 US troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, effectively ending America’s longest war.
The steady exodus over the past few months has coincided with the Taliban taking power again and leaving Afghans interpreters, journalists, contractors, and support staff, who were previously protected by the US and NATO forces, susceptible to retaliation.
Last week, the CPJ drafted joint letters with numerous US media outlets urging Washington to provide humanitarian assistance and emergency visas to Afghans they had worked with during the war. The letter was addressed to Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other high-ranking US officials.
Similarly, on Thursday, Britain’s leading newspapers and broadcasters asked Prime Minister Boris Johnson to give sanctuary to media workers in Afghanistan under threat from the Taliban.
Every major newspaper plus broadcasters Sky News and ITN wrote an open letter highlighting that media workers risk “persecution, physical harm, incarceration, torture or death.”
Afghan journalists and media reporters still in the country have been living in increasing fear as the Taliban has gained large swathes back.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Afghanistan is ranked 122nd out of 180 countries in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index. Over the past two decades, 85 journalists have been killed in relation to their work as five were killed in 2020 alone.
A few weeks ago, Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from India, who worked for Reuters, was killed while covering the clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban forces near a border crossing with Pakistan. Siddiqui was working that week as a journalist with the Afghan security forces when he was killed in Taliban crossfire.
