After a short interval Internews is resuming the publication of its newsletter on the freedom of journalism in Afghanistan. This newsletter seeks to document events of intimidation, harassment and physical violence against journalists in Afghanistan.

The newsletter will also document developments and circumstances that create or resolve difficulties faced by journalists in carrying out their professional duties.

As mentioned in previous newsletters, we are taking great care to ensure that documentation of events and incidents does not further jeopardize the safety of the media in Afghanistan or of individuals providing the information.

All Afghan journalists as well as all those interested in this subject are encouraged to share information on the basis of complete confidentiality.

In this newsletter we record a fairly common kind of harassment of Afghan journalists: local pressures of different kinds on media based in provinces and in rural areas which are encountered less frequently by their colleagues in Kabul or the larger cities. Sometimes, as in the case of the Internews radio station in Shinwar, the harassment has little to do with the cycle of news. However we document it because it is part of a pattern, detailing the very difficult circumstances under which Afghan journalists function, the absence of basic freedoms that journalists elsewhere take for granted, and a tribute to the journalists here who carry on nonetheless.

This third issue of the newsletter contains detailed research on the Supreme Court ban on cable TV in November and the fallout of that incident. Last week the Ministry of Information and Culture published a code of conduct for cable TV operators formulated by a commission set up by the government to review the cable TV ban.

Is the government trying to streamline the functioning of the media or is it using the vacuum in legislation to retreat from its oft-stated commitment to freedom of the media? We provide an initial account of what promises to be a lengthy process after talking with many of the major players.

The ban on cable TV had other fallouts. The Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, Abdul Hamid Mubarize resigned blaming increasing censorship. He blamed the Minister Sayed Makhdum Raheen for his resignation. Internews spoke to both ministers and herein reports on the different points of view.

Not all news is bad news. The other two events documented in this newsletter are welcome signs indeed. One regards an effort to set up a journalists union that seems to be well on its way after many false starts. The second is a very welcome initiative from the Ministry of Health to provide journalists with greater access to information.

Shinwar: Journalists in Afghanistan are often called to fulfill duties not expected of the media in any other part of the world. For the employees of Radio Spin Ghar in the border district of Shinwar in the eastern province of Nangarhar, it was a call to supply free power to the border check post close to their station. Their failure to do so led to threats that their station could be blown apart by a bomb and journalists working at the station being accused of being members of Al Qaeda.

The trouble began soon after Internews set up a radio transmitter in Shinwar in August 2004, close to Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Initially, Radio Spin Ghar only relayed the programs of Salaam Watandar to the area. A border post located nearby and manned by the Afghan border police requested the station to provide free power from the station’s own small power generator. At that time the station’s need for power was limited and it acceded to the request, providing power to the border post from time to time.

However as Spin Ghar developed into a full-fledged radio station producing its own programming, its need for power grew and it stopped supplying free power to the border post. The border post officials however claimed as a right what had been offered as a courtesy, and threatened the employees of the radio station. They asked the station employees to sign a letter that would state that the border post was not responsible for their security. They threatened the station saying it could come under attack at any time and be bombed.

In addition the police started harassing the journalists who work at the station, stopping them at the checkpoint, asking why they were traveling on the road and accusing them of being Al Qaeda members.

After the station manager complained, Internews approached the Interior Ministry under whose jurisdiction the border police work and complained on the station’s behalf. The Interior Ministry was responsive and issued a letter in favor of the radio station. All involved are hopeful that the issue will be resolved.

Cable TV Ban: In November following what the government calls some complaints from religious leaders and some TV viewers about “inappropriate” and “un-Islamic” programs and movies being telecast on cable TV and by some independent TV stations, Hamid Karzai’s government decided to impose a ban on all cable TV operations.

According to a representative of the Cable TV Operators Union, the ban was imposed on November 9 and remained in place for about a week, with the Interior Ministry issuing orders to ensure that cable operators throughout the country complied with the order by suspending their operations.

The entire episode was accompanied by strong rhetoric from the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Information and Culture, both of which issued statements condemning the program content of Independent stations as well as cable TV channels, stating that what was being telecast was both un-Islamic and against the tradition of Afghanistan.

The ban was seen as a victory for the conservative section of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari. Shinwari, who had been rebuffed earlier in his attempts to censor content on TV (the government had ignored his earlier criticism of stations airing women singers performing on TV) found a receptive audience within the government this time. Minister for Information and Culture Makhdom Raheen, who was earlier perceived as a liberal, launched an offensive against the program content. Media reports said Raheen’s turnaround was prompted by his desire to seek backing for his precarious cabinet berth by shoring up support from the conservative hard-liners. Raheen however argues that his only concern was for the possible corruption of youth exposed to undesirable programs. He denies that he was seeking the support of the conservative section saying that he does not need to since he is not a candidate for Parliament or for the president’s post. Raheen says he was one of the persons who opposed the ban in the cabinet meeting and states that it was at his urging that the Commission to review the ban was set up. Raheen states that he threatened to resign if the ban was not lifted.

The Supreme Court picked out newly launched Tolo TV for special condemnation. Tolo at that time was a two-month-old TV station launched by Moby Capital, the company behind Arman FM, an extremely popular entertainment radio channel aimed at youth.

Tolo TV issued a statement condemning the ban, claiming “the media in Afghanistan has been set back by a few years”. It described the move as the single biggest backward step Afghanistan had taken since the 2001 Bonn agreement.

Tolo said this action was a “flagrant abuse of the rights granted to all Afghans under the recently approved Constitution and a breach of the provisions of our media laws.”

After the Cable TV Operator’s Union approached the Information Ministry, the President’s office set up a three member commission to review the ban. The members of this commission were the deputy spokesperson from the presidential office, Hamed Elmi, a justice of the Supreme Court, Maulawi Said Mustafa Barakzai and the head of Afghan films Engineer Latif Ahmed.

The Commission ruled that while the complete ban could be lifted, the cable operators would be allowed, initially, to telecast only a bouquet of 25 approved channels, half of the 50-odd channels that operators were telecasting earlier.

With the majority of viewers depending on cable TV rather than satellite dishes for their TV viewing, most had their access cut off. For newly independent channels like Tolo TV, this meant a virtual black out.

The Commission now allows 35 channels and is willing to consider more. It also formulated a charter for a code of conduct for cable TV operators which came into operation on January 12. This charter stipulates that the cable operators cannot telecast anything that is un-Islamic, immoral, or against the tradition of Afghanistan.

The Commission which formulated the charter will itself be the body for implementing it and has accorded to itself the authority to be the deciding authority.

While the principle may sound like a reasonable way to protect Afghanistan’s identity, it is obvious that the process of defining what is Islamic and what is not, what is culturally acceptable and what is not, is open to interpretation and can change from time to time, depending on the personal preferences of the Commission members.

Hamed Elmi, deputy presidential spokesperson and member of the commission, says the code is necessary because the Constitution clearly states that Afghanistan is an Islamic country and Islam the religion of the people. Unsuitable material, adult material, and copyright violations cannot be permitted he says.

Engineer Latif Ahmed of Afghan Films, another member of the Commission says that channels which show programs against the culture of the country or Islam cannot be permitted. Maulawi Said Mustafa Barakzai, a justice of the Supreme Court and a member of the commission says programs that are not good for society should not be allowed. Barakzai also claims that as a member of the Commission he is qualified to decide what is suitable for the people of Afghanistan.

Since the ban, viewers have repeatedly been asking cable TV providers to restore the banned channels. The operators are due to meet with the Ministry of Information and Culture (at the time of writing) in a bid to secure permission for 80 channels. Amongst the channels that are banned currently are HBO, Star World, Hallmark, Persian Music Channel, Zee TV, Star Movies, B4U, and Khaibar TV. In addition, cable TV operators who were showing DVDs on their own private channels as part of the cable bouquet (channels where they could also advertise and earn some revenue), now have to submit each DVD or CD to Afghan Films for prior approval before screening. This of course makes it impossible for them to have independent, private channels of their own and has been a blow to their capacity for revenue generation. While Elmi suggested this was an attempt to ensure there are no copyright violations, it is apparent that this reasoning reveals, at the very least, the double standards of the government since copyright violations are taking place regularly with pirated DVDs sold openly on the streets of Afghanistan’s villages and cities.

In other countries which seek to censor TV telecasts, banning is the exception rather than the rule. In Afghanistan, under the current practice, every channel is proscribed unless specifically allowed by the Commission. While in other countries it is up to the censoring authority to prove the grounds for the ban, here the onus of proving that any particular channel does not violate the cultural and religious norms lies with the cable TV operators, placing severe restrictions on what they can telecast.

Raheen defends this practice repeating arguments about the unhealthy exposure of youth to adult programming on TV, to the culture of Afghanistan, and by arguing that technical issues which he does not understand are the reason for the decision. Asked how the un-Islamic content in the media would be determined, Raheen dodged the question by stating “we have been Muslims for 1,400 years”.

This is a dangerous precedent for the freedom of media in Afghanistan. Encouraged by the lack of protest, the government may be persuaded by conservative elements to adopt this approach in its future dealings with all independent media. All programming may have to be submitted for pre-telecast/broadcast approval and permission secured by every radio, TV channel or print media outlet to air any program or publish any story.

Minister Resigns, Blames Censorship: In December 2004 Abdul Hamid Mubarize resigned from his position as Deputy Minister of Information and Culture. He went on record to criticize the Minister for Information and Culture, Sayed Makhdum Raheen for the latter’s press censorship.

Mubarize told Internews that there were several incidents where Raheen had stepped in to prevent the broadcast of material that was not favorable to the government. Raheen denies this vehemently, claiming that Mubarize raised the bogey of censorship only after learning that he was not going to get yet another extension in his job.

Mubarize however says that Raheen made peace with the conservative elements to bolster his political position, abandoning his earlier moderate position for a more hard- line stance in issues such as the content on TV channels.

Journalists’ Association: Establishing a journalist’ union has been a difficult task for Afghanistan’s media. Deeply divided during the years of civil war, Afghan journalists have found it difficult to overcome these divisions to come together. However the crying need for a united front to pursue their rights has led to the establishment of more than one organization.

An important step was taken in December 2004 when a workshop held in Kabul agreed to form an association in April 2005. Principles are being drafted and the association already has 400 journalists’, months before the April meeting which will formalize the structure and principles of the association. The International Federation of Journalists, based in Brussels, is providing backing and support for this venture.

Lifting of Ban by Health Ministry: There is some good news for journalists working with the Ministry of Health. The Ministry, which was one of the several ministries formerly requiring journalists to receive prior permission from the Ministry before talking to any patient, doctor or even the relative of a patient in any government hospital, has now lifted the ban altogether. Journalists, the Ministry announced in January, would be allowed into government hospitals. What is more, they will even be allowed into operation theatres after observing the necessary sanitization procedures.

One may recall that Internews had first reported about the Afghan government’s practice of undermining its own declared commitment to the right to information. In its September newsletter on protection and intimidation of journalists in Afghanistan, Internews had pointed out that despite enshrining the right to information in the media law, the government was actually practicing the denial of very basic information. Several ministries have issued orders requiring journalists to take prior permission from the Minister before approaching any government school/police station/ hospital. This has been preventing journalists from fulfilling their professional requirements.

In January, the English language weekly Kabul Weekly carried an article on this issue, in which it quoted the Internews newsletter. The Health Ministry’s decision to lift the curbs was announced soon after.

For any queries or information please contact:
Aunohita Mojumdar, Media Analyst
Internews
Haji Mir Ahmad, Baharistan
Karti-Parwan
Kabul
Email: aunohita.mojumdar@internews.org
afghanmedia@internews.org

Jawid Ahmed: 00 93 7934-831

Note: To maintain the confidentiality and to protect sources it was not possible for Internews to corroborate the incidents by carrying out additional investigations. None of the material herein may be reproduced without permission from Internews.

This newsletter was made possible through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Transitional Initiatives, under the terms of Award No. HAD-G-00-02-00066-00 and by the European Commission, under project EuropeAid/117772/L/G/AF. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the European Commission.

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