A number of journalists on Sunday said the Islamic Emirate officials, in particular its spokespeople, are not helping journalists and media outlets in providing on-time information for them.

They said journalists are faced with many challenges in accessing information.

“When we contact the government or the officials or drop them a message, they don’t respond to us; or they see our message but don’t send back a reply on time,” said Farkhunda Mehbi, a journalist.

“As the spokesmen and government officials don’t respond to journalists’ questions, many stories are being published without balance,” said Mustafa Shaharyar, a journalist.

Meanwhile, media-supporting organizations said that access to information is the fundamental right of people and journalists. They urged the Islamic Emirate to help journalists in this regard.

“We hope that the Islamic Emirate would solve the issue through active spokespeople; otherwise, the space and media will, unfortunately, be involved with fake news,” said the head of the Union of Afghanistan’s Freelance Journalists, Hujatullah Mujadidi.

“If the provision of information to society is slow and there are problems in this regard, the right of access to information is violated and this causes problems in access to information,” said Masror Lutfi, head of Afghanistan’s Journalists Union.

The deputy minister of information and culture said that the spokespeople of the caretaker government and Islamic Emirate are obliged to provide information to the media and journalists on time.

“We hope that information is provided to the media on time,” said Muhajir Farahi, Deputy Minister of Information and Culture.

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Culture said that the law of access to information has been sent to the leadership of the Islamic Emirate for approval but there is no detail about the law.