NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet in a statement on the plight of journalists in Afghanistan: “As the Taliban have taken control of towns and cities across Afghanistan, there has been a consequential rapid escalation of violence and threats against journalists and independent media. Media outlets have been forcibly closed down or taken over by the Taliban to broadcast their own propaganda. Staff have fled or are in hiding. Women journalists are being banned from working and are fearful for their lives. Many remaining media outlets have curtailed their reporting due to security concerns – as a result to date over 1,000 journalists and media workers have lost their jobs.
"Government action to date has been insufficient, vague and lacking in urgency. This is needlessly contributing to the distress and fear of journalists and their families. Urgent government support must be put in place to secure access to the airport and onto military planes back to the UK. That means visas need to be approved swiftly, we have already seen too many days of inaction."
- The International Federation of Journalists has established a special appeal within its IFJ Safety Fund and the NUJ is asking all members to make a donation at: https://www.ifj.org/safety-fund.htm
The Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon in a statement: “The United States has a special responsibility to Afghan journalists who created a thriving and vibrant information space and covered events in their country for international media. The Biden administration can and should do all within its power to protect press freedom and stand up for the rights of the vulnerable Afghan reporters, photographers, and media workers.”
- CPJ has registered and vetted the cases of nearly 300 journalists who are attempting to reach safety, and there are hundreds more whose cases are under review.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reporters Without Borders (RSF): “We will respect freedom of the press, because media reporting will be useful to society and will be able to help correct the leaders’ errors. Through this statement to RSF, we declare to the world that we recognise the importance of the role of the media.”
- RSF said in a report in 2009: “The reign of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001 was a dark period in Afghanistan’s history.” All media were banned except one, Voice of Sharia, which broadcast nothing but propaganda and religious programmes.
Dominic Raab, quoted by the Guardian: “We recognise the bravery of Afghan journalists and those that have worked tirelessly to support them in the pursuit of media freedom and the defence of human rights. The vibrant Afghan media is one of the greatest successes in Afghanistan in the last 19 years, and it should be celebrated and protected.”
Times of Malta reports: "Yorgen Fenech has been indicted for the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, meaning he will face a trial by jury for the journalist’s 2017 murder. The business mogul faces charges of complicity in murder and criminal association, with prosecutors understood to be pushing for him to be sentenced to life in prison for the former crime and an additional 20 to 30-year sentence for the latter one."
BBC Moscow correspondent Sarah Rainsford on BBC News on having to leave Russia: " I'm being expelled and I've been told that I can't come back, ever. I've really loved trying to tell the story of Russia to the world but it is increasingly a difficult story to tell. I have to say, though, I wasn't expecting this to happen. There were clear signs for Russian media: there have been really serious problems recently, for Russian independent journalists, but until now, for the foreign press, we'd somehow been shielded from all of that. But this, I think, is a clear sign that things have changed. It's another really bad sign about the state of affairs in Russia and another downward turn in the relationship between Russia and the world."
- BBC director-general Tim Davie said in a statement: "Sarah is an exceptional and fearless journalist. She is a fluent Russian speaker who provides independent and in-depth reporting of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Her journalism informs the BBC's audiences of hundreds of millions of people around the world. We urge the Russian authorities to reconsider their decision."
The Observer in an interview with Nosrat Bazoft, the mother of journalist Farzad Bazoft who was executed in Iraq in 1990 while on assignment for the paper: "Nosrat says she still seethes with fury over the UK government’s response after her son was incarcerated at Abu Ghraib, kept in solitary confinement, starved and beaten. She holds the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, personally responsible. 'She didn’t do enough. Everything was her fault. She could have stopped the execution. The British government had the power to stop it. They were exporting so much trade to Saddam that they had the leverage,' Nosrat said. The release of official government files in 2017 confirmed that Thatcher’s government opted not to take any action in retaliation for the execution of Farzad for fear of harming lucrative exports to Iraq."
Guido Fakes reports : "When the Daily Mail intended to follow up a Guido exclusive that Len McCluskey had shared a hotel room with Karie Murphy (Corbyn’s then-chief of staff), McCluskey’s consigliere and legal chief Howard Beckett immediately muscled in, insisting the story was 'untrue, vexatious and malicious' and that 'such allegations are open to legal action by the parties concerned'. In no uncertain terms, he threatened to sue any paper that printed the story. Except the story wasn’t untrue or defamatory...Now that McCluskey has a book to sell, he’s admitted to the whole thing, claiming 'we wanted our relationship to be kept private, away from the public gaze', and that they were very much more than just 'close friends'."
University of Gloucester senior lecturer in journalism Paul Wiltshire on his blog on the difficulties recruiting new reporters into local journalism despite a boom in jobs: "Of our most recent cohort of graduates, only two have for the moment gone into news reporting. I’m delighted for them, and they’re doing well. But that’s out of 17. Why so few, particularly when there are so many jobs out there and so many editors are desperate for staff? Well, let’s cut to the financial chase. There is still at least one publisher starting trainees on as little as £17,100 a year...When our students can easily get two-and-half grand more than that for entry-level social media, PR or content creation roles, who can blame them for turning up their noses?...
"For decades, the industry built its business model on a belief that young staff will suck up poor pay and conditions because the media jobs market is so competitive, and that if it doesn’t work out with one reporter, there’ll be another coming round the corner in a minute to take their place at the interview table. If the difficulties so many editors are now facing don’t show the madness of that business model, nothing ever will. Some of the new, specialist roles which have been advertised in the last few months have come with more imaginative salaries. But general reporters – the people who form the beating hearts of newsrooms, real or virtual – are still stuck in a financial time warp."
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