RSF’s efforts on behalf of Afghan journalists

Dear Friends,

I would like to personally inform you about the initiatives and actions we have taken in the past few weeks to ensure the safety of Afghanistan’s journalists and their families.

The Centre for the Protection of Afghan Women Journalists (CPAWJ), which we have supported ever since its creation, suspended its activities as soon as the Taliban takeover was announced and its members have adopted a low profile. We are providing them with material assistance.

RSF reached out to many governments with the aim of obtaining visas for journalists and their families and getting them evacuated via the airlift. A major evacuation operation was unfortunately interrupted by the two explosions at Kabul airport. The immense majority of the country’s 12,000 journalists (including 1,700 women) are still in Afghanistan. We are continuing our efforts to facilitate evacuations. Their operational development naturally presupposes a great deal of discretion about the methods used.

Amid all the uncertainty, hundreds of journalists are turning to RSF every day for help, especially for help with meeting their most immediate needs. RSF has been using its assistance funds to provide grants which, for many of these journalists, have constituted their only financial resources in recent weeks and may continue to be so for some time.

RSF continues to lobby the international community for an emergency plan and for the release of funding to ensure the sustainability of the media and journalists in Afghanistan or in exile.

In this context, your help is decisive and the needs are immense.

I would like to reiterate my sincerest gratitude for your support, without which we could not carry out these actions.

REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS (RSF)

Christophe Deloire

General Director