Afghan rebels have sent threats to journalist about the media releasing news.
Media censorship is known to be forced globally by several different governments. Usually a government puts restrict on the internet and other media outlets to control the news. There are several groups that run to protect the freedom of the press and strive to release news for the public about corruption, land grabbing, violence against women, and human rights abuses.
"A Human Rights Watch reporter, Patricia Gossman released Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, said journalists increasingly face threats from Taliban insurgents and corrupt government officials". Journalist are trying to protect themselves from the threats by censoring their work. They fear that their will be no support because many of the Taliban attacks are ignored.
According to Human Rights Watch there was an increase in journalists after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Since then there have been a rise of new media outlets in Afghanistan. These new media outlets are owned by political and religious figures, to broadcasting behemoth TOLO TV, owned by Afghan-Australian entrepreneur Saad Mohseni. According to the independent news outlet, Stars and Stripes, TOLO controls as much as 45 percent of the national market.
Since 2012 The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported 68 threats from pro- government forces and 63% of cases of the government being guilty of the reports. Self- censorship has become a "survival mechanism" since the government had failed to adhere to a "rule of law", said Gossman. Rebels or corrupt government leaders would harass journalists at their offices, forcing them to apologize for critical reports, written against them.
According to Nazifullah Salarzai, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan government takes threats to journalists seriously, and he encouraged media to report any harassment to government officials and that any government officials caught threatening journalists would be brought to justice.
Sources
http://www.stripes.com/news/report-afghan-journalists-self-censor-to-survive-1.324786