By : Rukhshana Media
Three employees of National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) in Ghor province have been imprisoned for forging documents.
Abdul Ghafoor Abbasi, an RTA administrative officer, Jahandad Hakimi, an RTA reporter, and Laila Nael, a former employee of RTA, were detained two weeks ago and their trial was held on Thursday, January 5, according to reliable sources.
Rukhshana Media understands that Laila Nael tried to get a birth certificate under a different name and her former RTA colleagues were arrested for falsely verifying her documents.
Mr Abbasi and Mr Hakimi were each sentenced to 18 days in prison and Ms Nael was sentenced to two months prison.
Our reporter failed to communicate with the defendants despite repeated efforts.
According to a source, Ms Nael was dismissed from working in RTA, a state-owned broadcaster, after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year.
The Taliban has imposed extensive restrictions on the work of the media, especially female journalists and media workers.
Prior to the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government in August 2021, there were 526 registered media outlets operating in Afghanistan, including 160 television stations, 300 radio stations, 36 print media, and 20 online media outlets.
Today, those figures have been slashed. Around 80 television channels (50 percent), 144 radio channels (48 percent), and 20 news agencies, including all print media, have ceased to operate.
Before August 2021, there were 11,850 journalists and media workers. Now there are less than 3,000 journalists working in media organizations, and less than 300 of them are women. According to NAI, an organization supporting open media in Afghanistan
