Tuesday February 2, 2016
Kabul (BNA) The order of President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in connection with better implementation of media-related laws.
The country’s President has approved the following items for strengthening of freedom of expression and maintaining access to information in order to better implement the country’s laws in the field of support of mass media, facilitate legal activities of mass media and media activists, maintaining safety of relevant employees within duty, boosting of cooperation morale of government institutions with media and strengthen of media rights and citizens towards access to information in accordance with responsibilities for safeguarding the country’s interests:
A: Completion legislative framework of media activities and access to information and creating rules related to activity of journalists and media activists
1: Minister of information and culture, independent commission of administrative reforms and civil services and ministry of justice should prepare and process legislative document draft related to codification of information and document in which responsibility of institutions towards maintaining access to citizens and information and keeping the secrets of institution according to accepted national and international standards is differentiated.
2: Responsible civil society organizations, media activists’ organizations and press officials should prepare and enforce code of conducts related to journalists and media activists for better maintaining of their legal rights and responsibilities and take serious step towards its implementation.
B: Boosting cooperation with media:
3: For better implementation of legal responsibilities of press and sharia’s principle ‘promotion of virtue and prevention of vice’, ministries and government institutions should provide necessary legal facilitties for contacting and access to information by mass media employees from relevant officials including government’s media center, spokesmen’s offices, press units and public relations.
4: For implementation of legal responsibilities related to delivering information from their activities, constitution and maintaining security and rights of the country’s citizens in consideration to current security situations, security and defending organs should include rights and responsibilities of their relevant organs and ways of proper behavior with media employees in curriculum of their training centers.
C: Investigation of media violations through tasked legal organs:
5: Addressing media violations and solution of legal disputes caused directly by legal activity of media and media employees is only authorized by media complaints and addressing media violations commission of MoIC.
Attorney general office can only follow such cases when referred by the respective commission, otherwise; the said office and all other government institutions should avoid investigating cases related to activities of journalists and media.
6: Report of addressing cases in connection with assassination of mass media employees without paying attention to reason of incident should be published and current cases should be finalized and released publicly.
All government institutions in capital and provinces, civil society organizations and mass media organizations are obliged to implement the above items of the decree and cooperate with administrative affairs of presidential office in connection with overseeing the correct execution of the decree.
