International media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders condemned Friday an assault on an Afghan television cameraman by legislators during a scuffle in parliament last week.
The journalist was slapped while filming a commotion that erupted after an outspoken woman MP said former warlords in the parliament were criminals for their involvement in the 1992-1996 civil war in which tens of thousands of people were killed.
He was also forced to leave the room. Parliamentarians threw bottles at the woman, prominent MP Malalai Joya, and had to be restrained from physically assaulting her. Reporters Without Borders said the journalist, Omid Yakmanish of private Tolo TV, was beaten by two parliamentarians. They "set upon and beat Yakmanish to stop him filming the scene," it said in a statement.
"This brutality demonstrates how little store some Afghan deputies set by the work of the independent press," said Reporters Without Borders.
"We urge the parliamentary speaker to call to order the deputies responsible for this assault and ensure that such acts are not repeated." The Paris-based media watchdog listed other instances of violations of media freedom in Afghanistan, including alleged threats made to a journalist by a provincial council after the broadcast of a "sarcastic" poem on television.