Press freedom in Afghanistan
The situation of press freedom one year after the fall of the Taliban, 13 November 2001 13 November 2002
Reporters Sans Frontiere
One year after the flight of the Taliban from
are being sold on the streets of the city. Electronic media projects are
springing up and dozens of journalists are taking advantage of the
various forms of training established by international organisations.
The change is radical. After five years of Taliban domination, which had
turned Afghanistan into "a country without news or pictures" (according
to a Reporters Without Borders report in September 2000), the Afghan
press today enjoys "unprecedented freedom," says editor Fahim Dashty of
Kabul Weekly, the first privately-owned newspaper to reappear after the
Taliban departure.
But this freedom has been achieved in the face of attempts to impose
control on the part of the new government, which for the most part has
its origins in the
freedom is still fraught in certain provinces such as
governors and warlords control almost all the news media and sometimes
use force to muzzle journalists who criticise their power. The central
government seems for the most part unable to stop these abuses, which
have rarely been denounced by the United Nations.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) sent a fact-finding
mission to
look into the situation of press freedom there. This report assesses the
first year of President Hamid Karzai¹s administration.
Press pluralism?
With 150 publications just to itself, the Afghan capital is enjoying a
"media springtime." But appearances are deceptive. Firstly, almost all of
these publications are weeklies in the Dari language (the form of Persian
spoken by Afghanistan¹s second-largest ethnic group, the Tajiks).
has only one privately-owned publication exclusively in Pashto, the
language of the largest ethnic group. This is the magazine Kegdai, which
focuses on Pashto culture. "Obviously, there is discrimination against
the Pashtos," said Mohamad Ajmal, who works with IWPR, an NGO that trains
journalists. "No one dares to start an exclusively Pashto-language
newspaper giving a Pashto view of the situation."
Furthermore, the state owns at least 35 of these publication and almost
all of the electronic news media. The central government maintains a
predominant role in the Afghan news media and criticism of the
authorities is rare. "All this is a hangover from the communist era," a
UN diplomat said. "Most journalists practice journalism in a very Soviet
fashion."
"This is the time for rebuilding the country and turning it into a
democracy,² said radio reporter and ACPC (journalists group) member Ekram
Shinwari, adding that "the press does not level any severe criticism
against the government or the warlords." His colleague Abdul Hai Warshan
said, "There is no independent radio station or newspaper that dares
tackle or investigate the actions of certain of the regime¹s strongmen.
Journalists are afraid of being accused of supporting the Taliban or Al
Qaida." Alexandre Plichon of the media support organisation AINA said
Afghanistan¹s journalists were not yet ready to take big risks when it
comes to criticism. "You won¹t find any cartoons of strongmen such as
Marshal Fahim, even in the satirical weekly Zanbil-e-Gham."
Nonetheless, press freedom has increased since May. Previously, during
the first months of the interim government, the authorities did not
hesitate to target independent publications. The information minister
threatened the editors of
President Karzai¹s staff demanded that an Afghan television journalist be
sanctioned. The foreign minister turned down requests for accreditation
from Afghan journalists who worked for foreign news media.
Following pressure from the United Nations, from local and international
organisations and from certain embassies in
ended in May. The UN spokesperson in
was optimistic: "State censorship no longer exists in
see tension between the reformist and conservative camps within the
government. This has repercussions on press freedom." The same conflicts
are also found within the newspapers themselves. For example, the weekly
Payam-i-Mujahid, which has close links to Jamiat-e-Islami, an Islamist
party in the coalition government, has a very conservative editorial line
and published an insulting article about one of the women ministers in
the government. Its editor, when director of Kabul TV, banned female
singers from appearing on television. These conflicts have also affected
the journalists union, which recently split into two distinct groups.
The Afghan state has also maintained departments that are pre-disposed to
crack down on journalists. For example the secret services (known as the
Amniat Millz, or National Security) have not disbanded a section that is
tasked with surveillance of the news media.
A press law in need of reform
On 20 February, President Karzai¹s government promulgated a press law
largely based on a law dating from April 1965. It guarantees plurality of
information, but contains articles that curtail press freedom, especially
Title 7 concerning "forbidden publications." It is forbidden to publish
information that "offend Islam" or "weaken Afghanistan¹s army." Sanctions
are defined in Title 9 and must follow the sharia (Islamic law). A
publication can be suspended when the article on forbidden content is
violated.
The authorities at first rejected the criticism coming from organisations
that defend press freedom. But for the past six months, the information
ministry has been committed to a process for amending the law. Deputy
information minister Abdul Hamid Moubarez proposed a series of amendments
to the justice minister following recommendations made by participants in
an international seminar on press freedom in
told a Reporters Without Borders representative on 26 October that he
had, in particular, proposed decriminalising press offences and
eliminating the requirement for publications to obtain prior
authorisation. However, the seminar made other recommendations, which
Reporters Without Borders supports. They included protecting journalists
by law from strict application of the sharia, and the creation of a
mechanism for the fair distribution of radio and TV frequencies.
The penal code must also be revised as soon as possible because, as a
study by the media support organisation Internews recently pointed out,
it contains no less than 37 articles that provide for punishing
journalists with prison sentences in connection with their work.
State-owned media serving the government
"You just have to read the style of dispatches put out by the Bakhtar
news agency, which are repeated word for word by the television and
radio, to realise that these media continue to be propaganda tools for
the government," said a journalist with an international radio station¹s
Pashto service. Television, radio and news agency certainly continue to
be very dependent on the government, but the authorities have agreed to
begin liberalising the electronic media. "We are not afraid of
competition and it will help us to be more independent," state-owned
television director Azizullah Aryafar told Reporters Without Borders.
Despite certain initial reticence, radio and television are open to
programmes produced by NGOs or foreign stations. Thus, the news and
entertainment programme Good Morning Afghanistan has been broadcast daily
by the national radio station. "In eight months, we have never been
censored," said Bent Norby of the Baltic Media Centre, which is
responsible for this project. At the same time, he acknowledges being at
the mercy of a government decision. "Our programme could be eliminated
from one day to the next if it displeases the information ministry."
Deputy information minister Moubarez, for his part, said he no intention
of intervening in the content of programmes. "We are in the process of
establishing a commission that will enable Afghan television and radio to
become public media and not government media," he told Reporters Without
Borders.
The deputy information minister nonetheless maintains direct control over
many decisions concerning the state-owned media. Journalists who work for
these media said he intervenes in the choice of reports carried by the
Bakhtar news agency. In May, Khaleel Menawee, the agency¹s deputy
director, acknowledged that if "they refused to publish certain reports,
they would risk losing their posts." Furthermore, in addition to his
ministerial responsibilities, the minister heads the state radio and
television reform commission and the commission for the granting of
licenses. Nonetheless, UNESCO, the United Nations and certain development
organisations have decided to provide a considerable amount of assistance
to the public media. "It is necessary to build real public service
media," UN spokesperson de Almeida e Silva said.
Because of the mediocre quality of the public radio programming, many
Afghans listen to the dozen international stations that broadcast in Dari
or Pashto. The BBC continues to be the radio station with the most
listeners in
competes with satellite and cable TV, which are developing.
Provincial media: the voice of the governors and commanders
"The provincial radio and television stations have been completely taken
over by the governors," said Allan Geere of the press training
organisation IWPR. "The content is very poor, just propaganda or local
information. It¹s really Radio Governor." The journalists are under the
thumb of the local authorities and cannot imagine working in an
independent fashion. Information and Culture Minister Makhdoom Raheen
raised this issue at a meeting in
provincial governors. He told Reporters Without Borders: "I received very
regular complaints from local journalists who had been threatened or
forced to obey local authorities. I firmly asked the governors to have
this intimidation stopped. Since then, I have received no more
complaints."
In Faisabad, capital of the northeastern
television and radio stations and the local newspaper are all housed in
the same government building. "The governor has direct control over the
content of reports and the journalists are not allowed to put out reports
from abroad," said a foreign journalist who recently visited Badakshan.
In a report published in November, Human Rights Watch said the local
television station in the western city of
video footage, especially footage of unveiled women, contrary to Governor
Ismael Khan¹s instructions. An entertainment programme was taken off
after its third edition because, according to one of its presenters,
"young girls recited poems that were sometimes satirical."
The independent print media are hardly any better off. Takhassos, a
weekly published in the large western city of
association of professionals, has been the target of repeated
intimidation by the authorities since its creation. For example in May,
at the time of the elections of the Loya Jirga traditional assembly,
editor Rafiq Shaheer was detained and mistreated by members of the
governor¹s Amniat (security services). Governor Khan denied that there
have been any attacks or intimidation of the journalists who produce
Takhassos, which published an article on the use of the taxes levied by
the governor. Since then, the weekly has significantly modified its
editorial line and criticism is now virtually absent.
Local journalist Hasan Zada said: "After the fall of the Taliban, the
inhabitants of
publications that would express the people¹s hopes and problems. But that
has not happened yet." The control exercised by Governor Khan¹s security
services is the reason for this delay. The only publication that is
really tolerated is the weekly Ittefaq-e-Islam which carries "Khan¹s
propaganda."
Since setting up in the Panshir valley north of
Radio Solh (Radio Peace) have been the target of threats and intimidation
from local commanders, especially Rasoul Sayef. One of the station¹s
directors, Zakia Zaki, a woman, was threatened with death at the time of
the station¹s installation in the city of
station¹s women reporters have been unable to work freely in the city.
The local chiefs of Jamiat-e-Islami (a member of the
have forbidden them to interview other women in the street.
Journalists in the eastern city of
Borders they got threats from mujahideen commanders. "Here we don¹t have
the press freedom President Karzai talks about in
Zubair, head of programming at the Jalalabad TV and radio station. At
Mazar-i-Sharif, where there local warlords confront one another, at least
22 privately-owned publications have already been launched. But at
Surveillance of Afghan journalists working for the international press
Foreign journalists, eight of whom were killed during the last armed
conflict, are no longer harassed as they were under Mullah Omar. Only the
threats of armed groups, especially the Taliban, still pose a risk to the
international press. A Canadian journalist was seriously injured in March
by Taliban fire in the south, and anonymous leaflets have circulated in
eastern
But the government still keeps a close watch on Afghan or Pakistani
journalists working for the foreign media. In the weeks following the
liberation of
journalists were questioned and told to leave
reprisals. The foreign ministry also opposed the presence in
correspondents of newspapers published in
example, was refused authorisation to be the permanent correspondent in
Reporters Without Borders: ³Before November 2001, I regularly sent
articles to this newspaper. In January, I requested a new authorisation
from the foreign minister. I had supporting letters from members of
President Karzai¹s cabinet. But the person in charge of the media
department at the foreign ministry told me the minister did not want any
Wahadat correspondent in Kabul.² After being repeatedly censored,
Wahadat is again available in certain newspaper kiosks in
At the time of the Loya Jirga in May, Reuters correspondent Sayed
Salahuddin reported that Marshal Fahim, the defence minister, had
threatened the husband of the only woman candidate for president. The
next day, a member of Fahim¹s staff came and gave the journalist a
warning. "Nothing happened to me, but at the time I was afraid of what
might follow the threats," Salahuddin told Reporters Without Borders. In
the weeks following the Loya Jirga, he was summoned by foreign ministry
officials and criticised for his "biased coverage" of the Loya Jirga and
the situation in
speak to him for nearly two months.
Gul Rahim Naaymand, a stringer with the Voice of America¹s Pashto service
in the northern city of
23 July. Officers took all his tape recordings in order to listen to
them. He was released after Voice of America staff in
Sazed Kahim Shendandwal, the Voice of America Pashto service¹s stringer
in
the province was turned down by Governor Khan¹s administration at the end
of August. He lost his job as a result. The reason given by the local
authorities was that he "is not known in the city." Herat-based stringers
for the local language services of the BBC and Radio Free
have also been subject to pressure from the local authorities, who have
threatened not to renew their permits if their reports are overly
critical.
Taboo subjects
"The list of taboo and sensitive subjects is long. Journalists are moving
forward step by step," said Eric Davin, director of the AINA media centre
in
unity and the figure of Shah Massoud are all subjects that journalists
approach with the utmost caution. In mid-September, the
prosecutor closed the weekly Nawa-i-Abadi for having allegedly "insulted
Islam." The newspaper had translated and published Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi¹s recent comments on Islam¹s supposed inferiority.
Babrak Miankhel, a stringer in Jalalabad for the Pashto service of the
BBC, said he felt in danger every time he did a story about the
activities of the mujahideen chiefs. "I have to always remember that the
people I¹m talking about mustn¹t feel they¹re being attacked. If they
do, it¹s big trouble for me," he told Reporters Without Borders.
The authorities have also penalized journalists who have broached
embarrassing topics. In April, President Karzai¹s staff asked the
information minister to sanction state-owned television journalist Kabir
Omarzai after he asked the president about the border problem between
television station only to be reinstated after protests by Afghan
journalists and international organisations. At that time Information
Minister Raheen had told Omarzai that press freedom did not apply to him
and that journalists "should not ask this kind of question."
Information ministry officials also went to the offices of
to ask why it had published an article about this incident and,
subsequently, the text of the letter which Reporters Without Borders sent
to the information minister on the same subject. Kabul Weekly received a
second warning in April after publishing an article on General Rashid
Dostom¹s federalist views. Dashty, the newspaper¹s editor said: "We have
received no summons or threat since May. Our only problems now are
technical and financial ones."
In early October 2002, an Afghan cameraman known as Najib was kidnapped,
beaten and left for dead in Mazar-i-Sharif, after he had helped a British
reporter, Jamie Doran, make a documentary called "Massacre in Mazar"
about the death of thousands of Taliban soldiers at the hands of Gen.
Dostom and US forces. The cameraman was hidden by friends and then he
and his family sent to live in
Doran said Dostom¹s men had gone about systematically eliminating anyone
who had witnessed the massacres. "I¹ve just learned that two such people
were killed by them and that others are in danger. This is what happens
when you investigate the doings of warlords and their American patrons,"
he told Reporters Without Borders.
A group of foreign journalists including Barry Neild, an English-speaking
Agence France-Presse correspondent, went to Mazar-i-Sharif in early
October to investigate Taliban mass graves discovered in the region by a
Newsweek reporter. A foreign ministry official in Mazar-i-Sharif told
them that the person in charge of issuing authorisations for journalists
had left for several days, so he could not give them one. He warned them
that if they went to the region where the mass graves were located, they
would be doing so at their own risk and attacks could not be ruled out.
The reporters viewed this as a threat, and returned to
The
occasions kept journalists at a distance from certain operational zones
or from their "mistakes." At least six reporters have been struck by US
soldiers or their Afghan auxiliaries since November 2001, especially in
the Tora Bora zone. A Pakistani journalist was detained for four days by
US soldiers when he was investigating the presence of troops along the
border with
soldiers seized a radio transmitter in the eastern
was broadcasting reports hostile to the central government.
US army authorities have also tried to prevent journalists investigating
the death of more than 50 Afghans in the bombing of a marriage in
southern
Television News, were denied access to the zone until 4 July so that no
reports could be put out during the
According to the
former journalists are working in
to orient media coverage, especially reporting of "collateral damage."
Finally, the
several organisation, including Reporters Without Borders, about the
deliberate bombing of the
satellite TV station Al Jazeera in November 2001. Several journalists in
Qatar-based station¹s technical installations in the Afghan capital.
Enquiry into the November 2001 murder of four journalists manipulation
and incompetence
On 9 February, an interior ministry official announced the arrest of two
suspects in the murder of reporters Maria Grazia Cutuli, Julio Fuentes,
Harry Burton and Azizullah Haidari on the road between Jalalabad and
counterpart from
been identified. Despite these two statements, and despite repeated
requests from Reuters (which employed two of the victims) the authorities
have never revealed the identity of the suspects or the evidence against
them. The Reuters correspondent in
that it was necessary to wait for the results of the investigation."
However, in August, secret service officials told Reuters that they had
identified someone who could facilitate the arrests of the suspects, but
"the agency would have to pay."
Reporters Without Borders obtained information that tends to confirm that
the secret services arrested a mujahideen commander from Sarobi province,
Mohammed Tahir, in July. During interrogation, he reportedly claimed to
have "bought personal effects of the four journalists in order to be able
to identify the perpetrators of the murders." Tahir maintains his
innocence, although he was reportedly denounced to the secret services.
Since July, Reporters Without Borders has obtained no confirmation that
Tahir is still being held nor any confirmation as to the arrest of other
suspects.
Conclusions
One year after the defeat of the Taliban and the installation of
President Karzai¹s government, most of the people questioned by Reporters
Without Borders in
situation of press freedom. There is no shortage of initiatives designed
to consolidate independence and pluralism in the news media. Independent
radio stations are expected to spread quickly throughout the country.
Women¹s publications, such as Seerat, Malalai and Roz, are developing.
The media centre established by AINA is a model that should be repeated
in the provinces. The creation of a national distribution network by the
Afghan humanitarian organisation DHAC is another encouraging sign.
Khilid, a weekly published by DHAC, and eight other publications are
already available in 28 of the country¹s 31 provinces. One of Khilid¹s
editors said it is being published "not to upset but to inform as many as
possible." With a print run of more than 17,000 of which close to 90 per
cent are sold, Khilid is one of the finest successes of the Afghan press.
Reporters Without Borders asks the Afghan government to accelerate the
reform of the press law, so as to make it compatible with the
international instruments that protect freedom of expression, especially
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The
organisation also calls for a political will to promote press pluralism
throughout the country. Press freedom must be respected in all parts of
The organisation asks the interior and defence ministries to provide
detailed information about the state of the investigation into the murder
of the four journalists in November 2001, and it deplores certain
quasi-announcements by authorities that were followed by no concrete
progress.
Finally, Reporters Without Borders calls on the international community,
in particular the United Nations and its mission in
reinforce its assistance to the private news media, especially in the
provinces. The organisation believes that assistance for the state-owned
news media should be conditioned on the defence of greater pluralism in
information.
Mission Report - November 2002
Inquiry: Vincent Brossel
This document was made possible through the financial support of the
European Commission. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of
Reporters without Borders and therefore should not be construed as
representing, in any manner whatsoever, the official views of the
European Commission.
--
Vincent Brossel
Asia - Pacific Desk
Reporters Sans Frontières
5 rue Geoffroy Marie
75009
33 1 44 83 84 70
33 1 45 23 11 51 (fax)
asia@rsf.org
www.rsf.org
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