Within hours, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s move to skip a live TV debate with his rival candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Monday drew backlash from the Afghan media. The debate was organized by Ariana News in Kabul.

Media organizations have called Ghani’s defiance an insult to the media and to freedom of speech.
Members of these organizations have said that if Ghani was not willing to attend the debate, he should not have made a promise with Ariana TV.
Local Afghan media said that by breaking his promise to attend the debate, Ghani had violated the law and insulted both the Afghan people and the Afghan media community.
“The protocol team and the PPS (Afghan President Protective Service) were coming and going, they also met with me and with our colleagues. Initially there wasn’t any problem—not technical, not security, not any other concern. I received a call and I was asked to meet the team of Dr. Ghani. So we met his team. They had a couple of concerns that were settled by the end of the day. I received a call at 5:30 p.m. and was told all issues are settled. They said “[Ghani and his colleagues] will be there early, before Dr. Abdullah comes. But it was 8:00 p.m. when I got a phone call that Dr. Abdullah is on his way and at the same time I received another call from the campaign team of Mr. Ghani saying that this debate is cancelled,” said Sharif Hassanyar, head of Ariana News.
“By cancelling at the last minute, it means that he has insulted the media, his audience, and he has insulted the people,” said Afghan journalist Mujib Khelwatgar.
“When they agree on it a month before and then break their promise at the last minute, it is an insult to the media,” said Zarghona Roshan, a journalist.
This comes as Ghani and Abdullah are already facing severe public criticism over their failure to articulate a national program during their tenure over the past five years.
“I waited a long time with my friends and colleagues and we were all expecting to see what these two people have to say. But I don’t know the reason that the president did not come. It would have been much better if he was there,” said Baseer Ahmad, a resident of Kabul.
A message sent to Afghan media from Ghani’s advisor stated that the president cancelled the debate because his rival Abdullah Abdullah has no program for the country.
Abdullah later said that Ghani does not have the ability to compete with him in a debate.