Afghan Biographies

Nekzad, Farida Nikzad Mrs.


Name Nekzad, Farida Nikzad Mrs.
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1978
Function/Grade Wakht News Agency Director
History and Biodata

2. Previous Functions:
Institute for War and Peace Reporter (20030613),
Co founder, managing editor and deputy director of Pajhwok Afghan News,
Vice president of the South Asia Free Media Association for the South Asia Media Commission,
Wakht News Agency Founder (2009)
Head of the Electoral Media Commission (EMC), Farida Nekzad (20131231)
 

3. Biodata
farida_nekzadMrs. Farida Nekzad was born 1978 in Afghanistan. She was the managing editor and deputy director of Pajhwok Afghan News and former vice president of the South Asia Media Commission. A longtime journalist, Farida had founded three radio stations for women in districts outside Kabul.

In 2008, Farida won the Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award for her courageous work in Afghanistan. While she was in New York to accept the award, one of the other honorees urged her to stay in the United States and seek asylum, but she refused, saying, “I don’t want to stay, I have to complete the dream.” 2009 she started her own news organization, Wakht News Agency.

Farida Nekzad, editor of the Kabul-based Wakht News Agency, was among the representatives of Afghan media outlets summoned in mid September 2010 to the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS). In what she described as a "friendly" atmosphere, Nekzad was informed by a senior intelligence official that she and her fellow journalists in the country would be working under severe restrictions when it comes to reporting on the ongoing insurgency. "He said that the electronic media should be very careful while covering suicide attacks, or the type of attack we recently witnessed," she says. Nekzad adds that she was told that the media should not provide live coverage of insurgent attacks "because it raises concerns among people, [and that] insurgents or terrorists can benefit from such coverage."

Farida Nekzad is married and has one daughter, Muska.

Last Modified 2013-12-31
Established 2010-03-02