The Islamic Emirate prevented media outlets from holding a press conference over concerns about the status of media in Afghanistan, said officers from various media organizations.

The conference was supposed to be held on Wednesday in Kabul.

The Afghanistan Journalist Center in a statement said the conference was going to be attended by 11 representatives from different media organizations.

It was supposed to be that today the Afghanistan Journalist Federation and other media organizations would hold a conference. All national and international media outlets were covering it, however, unfortunately, due to the verbal order of the officials of the Islamic Emirate, the conference was canceled, said Ali Asghar Akbarzada, head of the Afghanistan National Journalists’ Union.

Members of the Afghanistan National Journalists Union said that the Islamic Emirate instructed them to not hold the conference until they receive permission.

We call on the Islamic Emirate to finalize their decision in the future. They should make the decision as soon as possible and give us a permit so we can hold our conference based on it,Akbarzada said.

The Islamic Emirate did not comment over whether it prohibited the conference of the media outlets or not but said that it remains supportive of the media, based on Islamic regulations.

The Islamic Emirate is committed to cooperation with the media and freedom of speech and it supports media under the Islamic structure, said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.

Based on statistics, over 43 percent of media activities have been halted and over 60 percent of media employees have become jobless since the Islamic Emirate swept into power in Afghanistan.