Methology

AJSC has been producing reports on the state of journalist safety and press freedom since 2013. These reports released on bi-yearly basis covers the changes in the state of press freedom and highlight the types of threats and violence journalists face across Afghanistan. AJSC throughout the year records any case of violence and threat that occurs against journalists and media workers in all 34 provinces.

AJSC exercises rigorous guidelines in terms of identification and collection of cases of violence against journalists from Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. AJSC maintains a representative or focal point throughout the country that document the cases based on the policies and procedures provided to them by the organization’s headquarter in Kabul. AJSC’s representatives and focal points reports each case within hours of its occurrence to Kabul office and carries out further investigations in the locality of the incident.

Based on the policies we use to collect data there is a clear definition for journalists and media workers as well as cases of violence against journalists. We use clear guidelines as to what constitutes a case of threat or violence against journalists. AJSC has defined these terms in accordance with international standard terms and have modified them as per the local context of the country.

This means AJSC does not document those cases of threat and violence that are not related to the professional work of journalists. The collected cases go through a second layer of verification by the Kabul office and then inserted into the organization’s database. The reports are produced in three languages of English, Dari, and Pashto and distributed to media community and other stakeholders during a press conference.

AJSC has launched this data-mapping platform to analyze the trend of violence against journalists and media workers in Afghanistan. AJSC has kept this platform an open source and available for all. We also welcome researchers and analysts to use the content of this data mapping and visualization to better understand the challenges Afghan journalists and media workers have faced. AJSC on bi-annual basis will update this platform to provide the latest information.