http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/world/asia/in-brutal-year-for-news-media-in-afghanistan-a-7th-journalist-is-killed.html 2014-09-17 16:06:58 In Brutal Year for News Media in Afghanistan, a 7th Journalist Is Killed The stabbing of Palwasha Tokhi adds to a toll that was already the deadliest for the news media in the country since the fall of the Taliban. === KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan woman has become the seventh journalist killed in Afghanistan so far this year, an Afghan media group said Wednesday, adding to a toll that has already made 2014 by far the deadliest year for the news media here since the fall of the Taliban. Palwasha Tokhi, who worked for Bayan Radio in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, was called out of her home purportedly to receive a wedding invitation from a visitor on Tuesday night.(Wedding invitations are typically delivered by hand in Afghanistan.) She was then stabbed to death by the visitor, who fled, according to Hafizullah Majidid, the head of Bayan Radio. Ms. Tokhi had just returned to Afghanistan after earning her master’s degree in Thailand. The police in Mazar-i-Sharif could not be reached for comment on the case. Ms. Tokhi became the fifth Afghan journalist killed this year, in addition to two foreign ones, according to The year before, three journalists were killed in Afghanistan, and two in 2012. Violence tends to increase during election years in Afghanistan, and in the previous presidential election year, in 2009, three journalists were killed. Ms. Tokhi was the second radio journalist killed in Mazar-i-Sharif this year. Most of the killings of Afghan journalists have taken place in the provinces, and most of their killings are unsolved. “Since 2001, more than 40 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, and none of the cases have been followed by the judicial system of Afghanistan,” said Abdul Mujeeb Khelwatgar, executive director of Nai, which trains and advocates on behalf of Afghan journalists. “This has made all the people behind the killings and violence against journalists brave enough to think they could do anything against journalists.” Mr. Khelwatgar said that Afghanistan’s journalists had improved professionally, which has made them more likely to undertake investigative reporting and report on corruption, angering powerful local figures. And the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from much of the country has also emboldened would-be attackers of journalists, he said. Journalists are generally more likely to be attacked by pro-government than by antigovernment forces, according to Nai’s data. This year, two of the journalists’ killings were committed by insurgents, one by the police and the rest by unknown killers in government-controlled areas. The Associated Press photographer A little-known insurgent group took responsibility for the killing of a journalist for Radio Sweden,