edited by Alastair Carthew and Simon Winkelmann
The accidental killing of a journalist by NATO forces, the release of two French journalists by the Taliban, the death of a cameraman during a Taliban attack, attacks on a radio station and the development of media law and new media through American aid programmes were features of Afghanistan during the second half of 2011.Still considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, Afghanistan’s media freedoms are compromised by the Taliban and also Afghan political and religious leaders. Typical of the pressures Afghan media outlets face, was the attack on Radio Paiman, an independent radio station in the northern province of Baghlan in January. Computers were smashed, the recording studio ransacked, radio consoles and microphones rendered inoperable.
The editorial freedom Radio Paiman operated under, even including a phone-in programme for locals, led to threats and reprisals against it. The station eventually went back on air in May.
Two journalists died. Ahmad Omid Khpalwak, who worked for the Afghan news agency Pajhwok and the BBC, was accidentally shot by a soldier in the NATO led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF) when he went to show his press card, but the US soldier thought he was about to detonate a suicide vest. Farhad Taquaddosi, a cameraman working for Iranian government’s English language TV Station, Press TV, died from injuries he received during Taliban attacks on several buildings in the capital Kabul.
Two French journalists, Hervé Ghesquièr and Stéphane Taponier and their Afghan interpreter, Reza, were released after almost 550 days in Taliban captivity. They were doing a report in the north eastern province of Kapisa for the French TV station France 3.
But on another scale, the US aid organisation USAID was working with lawyers on training them in the core concepts of media law, management and information and communications technology. As a result, Afghanistan’s first Media Lawyers Committee under the Afghanistan Independent Bar Association has been formed to provide legal services to journalists, media outlets and telecommunication companies.
USAD has also launched a programme working with local communities to bring the Internet and new media to ordinary citizens in the provinces of Hirat, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar. A network of multimedia centres is being formed throughout these districtcs. Within days of opening in Hirat, the first centre had 30 registered users, including private citizens, members of civil society groups and students. The centre offers short courses in topics such as blogging, website development and using the Internet to find specific information.
Afghanistan had 1 million Internet users at March, 2011 and almost 200,000 Facebook subscribers.
Afghanistan is 147th on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index in 2010.