In a conference on Universal Access to Information conforming to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, held in Kabul today, Minister of Economy Mustafa Mastoor expressed that the media’s aim should to meet the national interests. He said, “The media must pay attention to the dissemination of complementary information.”
Mr Mastoor also added that Afghanistan completely supports the sustainable development goals and has been enforcing them ever since they were released.
On the matter of access to information, he added: “With the rapid growth of Afghanistan, the demand for access to information has also increased with the media.”
Sayed Aqa Hussain Fazel Sancharaki, the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture also said that Afghanistan has worked on enforcing the SDG 16 and has consequently enabled 80% of specific reference agencies for disseminating information.
He also added that when it comes to a law based on information, Afghanistan is working on a notifying mechanism in offices to be able to “implement the information access law.”
Ms Patricia McPhillips, UNESCO Representative in Afghanistan expressed her greetings to the country for successfully ratifying a new law on access to information.
Earlier this year, with the help of UNESCO and Oversight Commission on Access to Information (OCAI), a total of 71 journalists and civil society actors completed their training to become certified trainers on the right to access public information and the Afghan Access to Information Law.
Afghanistan has been performing very well in the arena of access to information. In the Global Right to Information ratings by Access Info Europe (AIE) and the Centre for Law and Democracy (CLD), Afghanistan was the first in the list of top 10 countries.
