KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Over 40 Afghan journalists gathered Thursday outside the United Nations compound in Kandahar city to condemn the fatal shooting of a colleague who worked for Canadian news agencies and demand that his killers be brought to justice.
The journalists called on Afghan police to join with international agencies in the effort to track down those responsible for the death of Jawed Yazamy, which occurred Tuesday as he was getting out of his car near the governor's palace in the city.
Their peaceful demonstration came on the heels of a protest Wednesday in the western city of Herat, where supporters held up photos of the slain journalist and chanted, "Death to the enemies of freedom."
In chants and speeches, Yazamy - who worked as a cameraman and fixer for Â鶹´«Ã½ and occasionally for other outlets as well, including The Canadian Press - was painted as "the voice of the people" by his frustrated and distraught colleagues.
Fazulrahman, who works for Voice of America's Pashto service and, like many Afghans, goes by one name, said Yazamy was the second journalist in less than year to be killed.
Abdul Samad Rohani, a freelance journalist for the BBC Pashtu service in Helmand, was killed last June. His body was found unceremoniously dumped in a graveyard.
Fazulrahman pointed a sharp finger of criticism at local police, under whose noses the latest killing occurred, he said. "Yazamy was killed in a very secure area of the city, and yet they say the culprits got away."
Mohammed Masomi, who works for the television station Tolo, said journalists are threatened every day in southern Afghanistan, either by the Taliban or by corrupt government officials.
Since Yazamy's death, Masomi claimed, he's received threats that he would meet the same fate.
The Taliban has denied responsibility for the killing and is instead blaming Afghan security forces and the U.S., whom Yazamy accused of torturing him during an 11-month detention at Bagram Airfield last year.
In an attempt to defuse the public backlash, Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa issued a statement late Thursday, saying that he has full confidence in local police to solve the crime.
"I will put all my power to find out the criminals who carried out this action against the journalist," he said in Pashtu. "I have already ordered the officials to investigate thoroughly."
UN officials also appealed to the protesters to allow authorities time to investigate.
The concept of a free media is still struggling to take hold in Afghanistan, seven years after the ouster of the Taliban.
Last year, the case of Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh made international headlines.
The 23-year-old reporter for the Jahan-e-Now daily was sentenced to death for blasphemy by a court for allegedly questioning the prophet Muhammad's respect for women's rights.
He was tried behind closed doors in the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif after university classmates raised allegations that he mocked Islam.
