Iran has commemorated�National Reporter�s Day marking�the anniversary of the killing of an Iranian reporter in Afghanistan seventeen years ago.�

August 8 was designated National Reporter�s Day in Iran after Taliban militants killed Mahmoud Saremi, the correspondent of the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), along with eight Iranian diplomats, in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998.

In a message on Friday, Iran�s President Hassan Rouhani expressed his felicitations on the occasion of National Reporter�s Day.

Reporters, who shoulder the responsibility of disseminating timely and correct information and informing people on realities, are �living�conscience and wakeful eyes� in the path of prosperity, the president said.

Since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, over 30 journalists and media workers, including a Press TV cameraman, have lost their lives in the war-ravaged country

Press TV�s cameraman Farhad Taqaddosi died in hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul after English-language television network�s office came under a rocket attack in 2011.

By Press TV