The Afghan media continued to develop but independent journalists ran afoul of old enemies – warlords, conservative judges and Taliban. The draft constitution guaranteed press freedom but provided for prison sentences for press offences. The blasphemy law continues to be the biggest menace for journalists. Two were sentenced to death for what they had written and had to flee the country.
The approximately 200 publications that have sprung up since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 were hard put to survive in a saturated market and had to rely on financial support from international organisations or political parties. One of the very few publications to be produced solely in the Pashto language, Gorbat, received permission from the authorities at the beginning of the year.
Radio stations made dramatic progress in 2003. Radio Arman (Hope) was the first commercial station to be launched by an Afghan, Saad Mohseni. It carried music and debates in which Afghans of both sexes expressed themselves freely about daily life in Kabul and Bollywood movie stars but it carefully eschewed politics. "We don't want to be linked politically with anyone," Mohseni said. Some conservatives voiced outrage about the station because "young girls can be heard laughing on the air." But in what an Afghan journalist has called a "radio-centric" country, it quickly became the capital's most popular station, with many more listeners than the national and international news radio stations. This development was supported by international organisations and even the US military forces, which decided in November to distribute 200,000 transistor radio throughout the country.
Television began to find a modest space in Afghans' daily lives. National transmission of the state television station improved thanks to international support, but its programme content was still very poor, and controlled. A commercial TV station was launched in 2003 in the northern town of Shibergan. It broadcast six hours a day with programmes in four languages. Four companies were competing to obtaining the first terrestrial TV licences in Kabul.
Women journalists consolidated their place in the news media. They were finally allowed to work for radio and TV stations in northwestern Herat province on 28 January. The women's magazine Morsal (The Rose) appeared on sale on 8 March, International Women's Day. The Voice of Afghan Women, the first radio station targeted at female listeners, began broadcasting in Kabul the same day. Presented by five women journalists, including Djamila Moudjahed, the founder of the women's magazine Malalai, it carried music, educational programmes, local news and practical information. Conservatives openly criticised it as "contrary to the principles of Islamic law." A second radio station presented by women, Rabia Balkhi, was launched in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif on 9 March. A third one, Sahar (Dusk), was subsequently started up in Herat. Finally, the station Afghan Independent Radio was launched in the southern city of Kandahar with the support of two NGOs, Internews and ACS.
As the 2004 elections approached, the conservatives, led by the mujahideen chiefs, began to clash in the news media with the liberals, mostly Afghans who went into exile during the civil war. This war of words reflected the tensions within the Karzai administration. A publication backed by the mujahideen ran an article headlined, "The pro-westerners follow in the footsteps on the communist regime." It attacked those Afghans who "fled their country when things were at their worst and who come back today to take senior posts in the government." One of these "westernized Afghans," deputy information and culture minister Abdul Hamid Mubarez, wrote a reply in the state-owned newspaper Anis that was headlined : "Those who return from the West are this country's true sons." The government newspaper Arman-e-Mili tried to calm things down : "Having obtained press freedom, we should not spoil the opportunity by using our pens for harmful ends that would lead out country into tribal or regional conflicts." The ban on cable television issued by the conservative-dominated supreme court in January was also a source of tension. The decision was lambasted in an article by journalist Mohammad Ali Qayam, drawing a response from supreme court member Fazal Ahmad Manawee who branded the journalist as an "infidel."
The conservatives regrouped within the political-military alliance Shura-e Nazar in 2003 and tried to exercise more control over the media. Shura-e Nazar members were virulent in their attacks on the independent media, especially when the weekly Aftab was accused of blasphemy. Their campaigns of intimidation led journalists to use considerable self-censorship when writing on issues affecting mujahideen chiefs. Provincial governors also had their own news media. For example, Gul Agha Sherzai controlled the newspaper Tolu-e-Afghan in Kandahar and Ismael Khan controlled the weekly Ittifaq-e Islam in Herat. Conservative former President Burhanuddin Rabbani supported the launching of the first commercial news agency, Indou Kouch. He also reportedly wanted to launch a commercial TV station and acquire a printing works.
The many physical attacks and threats against journalists in March and April forced the information ministry to set up a protection programme. "When a journalists fears for his safety, we immediately inform the interior ministry to obtain protection," the deputy information minister said. A spokesperson for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said these incidents fostered an environment that restricted free expression. The head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, Abdul Ahror Romizpour, said the critical press was the target of threats from certain senior officials, politicians, warlords and mujahideen commanders. In 2003, this commission succeeded in getting a woman writer acquitted after she had been sentenced to death for blasphemy in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif by a local assembly of religious leaders for writing an article about the role of women in the next constitution.
Journalists tried creating a single independent journalists' union at the start of the year but failed because of political conflicts, attempts to manipulate the process, and the considerable antagonism already existing between progressive journalists and members of the conservative Jamiat-e-Islami party. The editor of an independent publication exclaimed at a preparatory meeting : "I see so many warlords here that I wonder when they became journalists." On the other hand, Kabul's first independent press club open on 29 April on the initiative of the Afghan Centre for the Promotion of Communication (ACPC).
News media were also used by Taliban groups and groups led by Islamist warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, which gained strength throughout 2003. The illegal radio station Sadaee Moqawemat (Voice of the Resistance) called for jihad and the death of US soldiers at the start of January. The station also issued calls from the mountainous provinces of Khost and Paktia in the east of the country for the overthrow of Hamid Karzai's government.


Source: Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF)

Copyright © 2004 Third World Media Journal A Quarterly Publication of Third World Media Network (TWMN)