TV cameraman dies of injuries sustained in Taliban suicide bombing

RWB offers its condolences to Hatami’s family and friends and urges the Afghan authorities to do more to protect journalists, especially from the threat posed by the Taliban. The explosion caused several deaths and injured around 20 people. Those wounded included two other Mitra TV cameramen, Shahed Farohesh and Shakib Mohammadi, and two other employees of the TV station. They are all recovering from their injuries. Responsibility for the attack was claimed within a few hours by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a press release that directly threatened the Afghan media and journalists. The release said: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan takes this opportunity to warn certain immoral media and all organizations acting in the name of ‘civil society,’ issuing publications, disseminating reports attacking Islamic values, organizing meetings and demonstrations against the veil and in favour of music, prostitution and corruption, and helping to manipulate society’s young people. We inform them that from now on the Mujahedeen will not remain indifferent to these activities and will destroy the very core of these corrupters.” Réza Moïni, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Iran-Afghanistan desk, said: “There has been no change in the hatred that the Taliban express towards journalists. They continue to put intense pressure on independent media to relay their Jihadi propaganda and force them to censor themselves. This statement has again exposed the true face of their terror, the cause of the information black holes in the areas they control.” When around 100 journalists attended Hatami’s funeral yesterday, they called for a “boycott on information about the Taliban in the media until they put an end to their attacks on civilians and journalists.” Government spokesman Moujib el Rahman Rahimi assured Reporters Without Borders that “the protection of citizens and journalists is one of the government’s priorities.” He said the authorities had ordered the military and police to protect threatened journalists and media but could not guarantee that the protection was 100 percent effective. “We are ready to work with the media and civil society organizations to reinforce our security measures,” he added. Hatami, 23, was the fourth journalist to be killed in Taliban attacks this year. Nils Horner, a journalist with Swedish and British dual nationality, was killed in the central Kabul district of Wazir Akbar Khan on 11 March. AFP reporter Sardar Ahmad died in an attack on Kabul’s Serena Hotel on 20 March, and AP reporter Anja Niedringhaus was killed in the eastern province of Khost on 4 April. Afghanistan is ranked 128th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.