A journalist friend who works for a prominent – wealthy and generous – media corporation gave me an embarrassing answer when I complained to him about the unavailability and bad behavior of some government spokespersons (frankly the MoI spokesman).
“We bribe them,” he said “and we don’t need to call them to inquire about an incident or an issue but they call us and keep us [exclusively] update up-to-the-minute.”
When I asked him what “bribe” means he said: “a bottle of wine, a telephone handset or a coat from Dubai!”
I hopelessly hope this is untrue!
Ironically, these days it is easy for me to get a quote/confirmation/rejection from the Taliban’s spokesmen. Zabihullah Mujahid regularly texts me security incidents as they happen, albeit with hugely exaggerated figures.
However, I spend hours to catch a government spokesperson on the phone and the worse thing is they often gave me rubbish!
Alas! Corruption is everywhere in this country.
I may need a “spokespersons’ relations budget” – bribing fund – in order to be able to access prioritized information.
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