Afghanistan: hundreds of journalists forced to retrain for odd jobs

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With each new city they occupied during their reconquest, the curtains of the newsrooms closed. And the arrival of the Taliban in Kabul sounded the death knell for a hundred media outlets and hundreds of journalists. Many went into hiding to avoid arrest, if not worse.

Many tried to flee, mostly unsuccessfully. After several weeks, the lack of income forced them to retrain as best they could, generally in manual activities which give them low incomes, much less than the little they earned as journalists.

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“It's either a job or families are starving”

Our Observer, Ali (pseudonym), is a journalist since 2014. He has worked for a small local television station in northern Afghanistan, which closed after the Taliban took Kabul. He now works as a salesman in a fruit store.

Afghanistan: Hundreds of Journalists Forced to retraining for odd jobs

The price of many goods has indeed increased in Afghanistan. Flour is bought, for example, now around the equivalent of 25 dollars per kilo [approximately 22.2 euros], more than double than before. In October, the director of the World Food Program, Mary-Ellen McGroarty, warned that "8.7 million people were one step away from starvation" out of an Afghan population of 39 million.

“People who have seen my reports laugh at me.”

Our Observer continues:

“There will be nothing left of journalism in Afghanistan”

The World Bank estimated, in a report published on October 8, that a “substantial part of the population is at risk of falling below the poverty line”, as a result of “negative impacts” on employment and the price level. This risk concerns, according to the institution, 10 million Afghans. She also believes that the food situation is expected to deteriorate, "with potential long-term negative impacts given Afghanistan's young population".

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