A few days earlier, an Afghan journalist Sami Mehdi was declared to be the ‘Most Brave Journalist’ for 2012 by the American International Journalists. He was given this award in a ceremony held in United States. Afghan journalist’s efforts and bravery in undertaking his professional responsibilities was lauded and termed to be a good addition in the development and maturity of journalism in this war-torn country.

In normal circumstances, journalism is considered a dangerous and risky profession because a journalist always tries to bring the harsh and unpleasant realities of society to surface. He discovers injustices and unfair practices prevalent in the society and brings them to the notice of public.

He criticizes the wrong doers so that they should quit those acts that harm the society and humanity. Usually, journalists perform these bitter jobs to bring betterment in the general situation of the society. But unfortunately, people don’t try to change themselves and instead develop feelings of enmity towards the journalist or the media. From such a perspective, work of a journalist is always dangerous and risky.

But in countries where war and unrest prevails, life of a journalist is always in danger. A journalist tries to bring out the cruelties and injustices of war to surface and thus not liked by any side of the warring factions.

Although Geneva Convention and International laws clearly state that life of a journalist should be protected during the war and no side should inflict any kind of harm to the life and property of journalists but during the war, usually the laws and norms are ignored and thus we have seen that there has been sharp rise in the death toll of journalists performing their duties in the war-hit regions.

Unfortunately, Afghanistan is still one of the countries where anti-government and terrorist elements are active in different parts of the country and thus a state of war is still present in some parts of the country. With this drastic situation, work of a journalist is not easy because he feels himself under the constant threat from the terrorist elements. Moreover, strong and influential tribal chiefs or old warlords are also very less tolerant and soon show their retaliation whenever something is reported against their objectives.

In such difficult circumstances, the above award is a clear sign that journalists of our country are working ignoring all the fear and difficulties. This also shows the ever-growing standard of media and journalism in the country.