SAFMA Opens Office in Kabul

30 May 2007: Kabul (Pajhwok Afghan News)
by Sher Ahmad Haider

A regional office of the South Asia Free Media Association, founded seven years back, was formally inaugurated in Afghanistans capital city on Wednesday.

Vice-President Karim Khalili and Senate Chairman Professor Sibghatullah Mujaddedi jointly opened the SAFMA office at a well-attended ceremony held at the upscale Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul.

Among others, senior members of the association from Pakistan and India, Kabul-based diplomats, a number of seasoned journalists, leaders of cultural organisations, members of Parliament and ministers participated in the inaugural ceremony.

Since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, media had made significant headway like other institutions had in Afghanistan, Karim Khalili told the 200-plus audience.

Hailing Afghanistans membership of SAFMA as a positive step, the vice-president observed the world was truly becoming a global village, where distances were rapidly shrinking and peoples coming closure.

Khalili, who spotlighted the role of media outlets in the cohesion and unity of nations, acknowledged Afghan journalists faced a number of problems in discharging their professional duties. Some were even killed in the line of duty, he added.

In his speech, Sibghatullah Mujaddedi remarked media had the tremendous power to unite the people and the government on the one hand and create a yawning gap between them on the other.

He praised journalism as a valuable profession while urging media people not to lose sight of their duty and responsibility of working for the greater good of the teeming masses.

SAFMA general secretary Imtiaz Alam, shedding light on the role of the association, its history and objectives, promised the media group would do all it could to promote peace in the South Asian region.

It would try its level best to play an effective role in promoting the cause of media and ensuring its independence, pledged Alam, who stressed the need for legislation removing the hardships being encountered by journalists.

Halim Fedayee, the forums president in Afghanistan, viewed the opening of SAFMAs office as a welcome stride towards the advancement in the media sector of the war-torn country. He said they would take initiatives to forge closer links between journalists of regional countries besides working for peoples welfare.

India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Afghanistan are members of the association established in 2000 in Islamabad, where it held its maiden meeting.

Link: Afghanistan News Center