Despite the fact that the Ministry of Commerce’s public announcement prior to the conference had imposed no restrictions on media coverage, in practice only a limited number of media outlets were permitted to attend, while many journalists and other media organizations were barred from entry.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Reza Boroumand, the Ministry of Commerce’s media coordination officer, told our reporter in response to journalists’ protests: “According to the directive of His Excellency the Minister, the Ministry has invited only a limited number of media outlets.”<\/p>\n
This is despite the fact that the text of the announcement issued by the Ministry was addressed to “all traders, investors, producers, and interested parties” and made no mention of restricting media coverage or inviting a specific group of media outlets.<\/p>\n
This is not the first time the Ministry of Commerce has adopted a dual and discriminatory approach toward the media. Similar patterns of restricting media access have been repeated at previous events.<\/p>\n
This practice raises serious questions about transparency and free access to information at official government events.<\/p>\n
Hujatullah Mojaddedi, head of the Afghan Free Journalists Union, reacted to this action, telling weezha roz: “Excluding journalists and officially licensed media outlets from covering national and regional official gatherings is a discriminatory act that contradicts the principles of equal access to information and professional media activity.<\/p>\n
We emphasize that equal treatment of all legitimate media is an essential condition for strengthening trust, transparency, and accountability in engagement with the media.”<\/p>\n
Salahuddin Qarizadeh, a media expert, told our reporter: “Media discrimination has detrimental consequences in the realm of access to information.<\/p>\n
As you know, in a country where media discrimination exists, access to information becomes limited, and all citizens cannot have equal and fair access to information.<\/p>\n
Media discrimination erodes public trust in society and can significantly damage transparency, trust, and accountability. As it is said in journalism: information belongs to the people, not the government.”<\/p>\n
He added: “Media outlets have equal rights to access information whether a state media outlet or a private one, both have the same and equal right to access information, news, and events, and to freely participate in press conferences and produce news and reports according to their publication policies.<\/p>\n
If a country practices media discrimination, allowing one group of media to produce news and reports while denying another group, the people cannot access their most basic right\u2014access to information.”<\/p>\n
Media discrimination at events intended to develop trade relations and showcase economic capacities not only contradicts the spirit of public information but also calls into question the credibility and inclusiveness of these gatherings.<\/p>\n
When, on one hand, all economic actors are invited to participate, while on the other, independent journalists are barred from covering the event, the question arises: is the goal transparent information dissemination, or controlled news management?<\/p>\n
The media, serving as the bridge between government institutions and society, play a vital role in transparency and raising public awareness.<\/p>\n
Restricting their access particularly in the absence of any clear legal or security justification signals weaknesses in communication policy and a disregard for the principle of free access to information.<\/p>\n
END<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite the fact that the Ministry of Commerce’s public announcement prior to the conference had imposed no restrictions on media coverage, in practice only a limited number of media outlets were permitted to attend, while many journalists and other media organizations were barred from entry. Mohammad Reza Boroumand, the Ministry of Commerce’s media coordination officer, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2320,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions\/2320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weezharoz.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}