Dear Federal Chancellor, Dear Foreign Minister,

this letter is a cry for help.

It is signed by the publishers, editorial offices, broadcasters and media companies in Germany, which have contributed significantly to reporting from Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

Our reporting, which provided the German public and politics with analyzes, insights and impressions from the country, was inconceivable without the commitment and courage of the Afghan employees who supported us on site: the local journalists, stringers , Translators.

Over the years, they too have shared our belief in the free press as an indispensable element of a stable, peaceful, balanced democracy - a value that the German government strongly supported in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.

The lives of these freelancers are now in acute danger. The war overran the Afghan government in many provinces. Even life in Kabul has become extremely risky for employees of international media organizations. After the withdrawal of the international troops, including the Germans, there are growing concerns that the Taliban will commit acts of revenge against our employees.

In the past few weeks alone, the world-famous photographer Danish Sidiqqi was shot dead in Kandahar, and a television journalist died in a bomb attack in Kabul.

Amdadullah Hamdard, who often worked for ZEIT, was shot dead in front of his house in Jalalabad.

Dozens of journalists have been murdered in the past few years by the Taliban, by the "Islamic State", by strangers.

And the government has almost never identified the perpetrators.

It is to be feared that such murders will now increase dramatically - and many of our employees are threatened.

Set up emergency visa program!

According to international human rights organizations, there is hardly a country in the world in which journalists are now as vulnerable as in Afghanistan.

We hereby call on you to set up a visa emergency program for Afghan employees of German media companies.

We are joining appeals from the UK and US media to their respective governments.

In recent years, the German government has repeatedly recognized the central role that Afghan translators played for the Bundeswehr and the immense danger to which they were and are exposed because of their work.

For this reason, the federal government has created an extraordinary visa program for them.

Such a program is now urgently needed for the employees of German media companies.

Without these courageous Afghans, the German public and politicians would not have been able to be informed about the general conditions of the 20-year Bundeswehr mission.

The work of these people was just as indispensable for the commitment of the Federal Republic of Germany in Afghanistan as that of the Bundeswehr translators.

As important as these employees are, their number is manageable and no more than a few dozen people, including their families.

Last week, following similar appeals from the US media, the Biden administration recognized the dramatically increased risk that employees of foreign media are exposed to and included those affected in its refugee program for Afghanistan.

The UK government has indicated that it is preparing a similar decision.

We are convinced that now there is no more time to lose.

Our employees who want to leave the country face persecution, arrest, torture and death.

We therefore ask you to act quickly.

DIE ZEIT, Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV), DER SPIEGEL, Deutsche Welle, Deutschlandradio, dpa, Reporters Without Borders, stern, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, taz, RTL, n-tv, ARTE and MDR