A group of Afghan journalists in exile have set up a new media organization called Chashm News Network, based in Norway with broadcasts in Farsi, Pashto and English, to provide coverage of events in the Central Asian country following their flight in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
«As the voice of the people of Afghanistan, Chashm News is composed of a large number of professional journalists and experts dedicated to neutral reporting and publishing news from Afghanistan, the region and the world,» the media outlet said through a statement on its Twitter account.
It stressed that «the media in Afghanistan has faced many challenges over the past year» and denounced that «the Afghan people have been silenced due to extreme media censorship».
«As part of this critical situation, we consider it our responsibility to freely reflect the developments in Afghanistan, including the hardships and adversities it is suffering,» he said.
The media outlet has indicated that it has been created by «independent journalists in Europe, the United States and Afghanistan» and has detailed that it is led by Sharif Hasanyar. «At the moment, the agency is managed through the financial support of the founder and many journalists,» he reiterated.
Hasanyar was CEO of the media company Ariana, one of the most important in Afghanistan, a country where many media outlets have had to close their doors during the last year due to censorship and restrictive measures imposed by the Taliban.
The creation of Chashm News comes nearly four months after Afghan journalists in the United States launched Amu TV, while three other journalists based in Germany recently started Sicht TV to increase coverage of the situation in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Sheesa Media, founded by Aziz Royesh, is based in Canada and was founded by journalists in exile to cover political, social and economic issues, as reported by the Afghan news agency Jaama Press.
The Taliban, which announced the restoration of the Islamic Emirate nearly 20 years after being ousted from power by a U.S.-led military intervention following the September 11, 2001 attacks, has been criticized for its discriminatory measures and has struggled unsuccessfully ever since to gain some recognition and the removal of sanctions.
