Afghanistan: A Nascent Free Press Seizes the Moment = (Carefully)

WORLD
Afghanistan: A Nascent Free = Press Seizes=20 the Moment (Carefully)

BY BORZOU = DARAGAHI

The rebirth of the = Afghan media=20 began, ironically, with a bomb packed into a news camera by two = apparent=20 al Qaeda operatives posing as journalists. On September 9, the = bomb, quite=20 possibly a precursor to the events of September 11, killed Ahmed = Shah=20 Massoud, the lion of Panjshir, who had fought against the Taliban = militia=20 since the mid-1990s.

The explosion, in the Northern Alliance stronghold of the = Panjshir=20 Valley, also badly injured Fahim Dashty, a distant relative of = Massoud and=20 the warlord=92s designated propaganda filmmaker. His hands, arms, = and legs=20 badly burned and bloodied, Dashty was airlifted to Tajikistan and = later=20 flown to Paris for treatment.

From his hospital bed, he hooked up with a group of idealistic = French=20 yuppies who took it upon themselves to help Dashty and other = Afghans=20 relaunch Kabul Weekly, once a mouthpiece for Massoud and his = mujahedeen=20 faction, as an independent nonpartisan weekly. And despite coming = of age=20 in the lap of a warlord in a country torn apart by ideological and = territorial strife, Dashty, the skinny, chain-smoking = editor-in-chief of=20 the weekly, decided to become a real journalist.

=93The stuff I did in the past was definitely propaganda,=94 = says Dashty.=20 =93In the past there was a necessity for propaganda. No one knew = what the=20 Taliban were doing to the people of Afghanistan. But now, without = a doubt,=20 I=92ve learned the value of freedom of the press in = Afghanistan.=94 And he=92s=20 not alone.

Dashty=92s country now is a devastated land with a shaky = government that=20 desperately needs channels of communication to close wide = geographic,=20 cultural, and political divides. And if the unstable transitional=20 government cobbled together in the recent Loya Jirga, the grand = assembly=20 of the elders held in mid-June, makes an independent, accessible = press all=20 the more pertinent, it also makes it more possible. = Afghanistan=92s media =97=20 particularly in and around Kabul =97 have flowered since the = overthrow of=20 the Taliban, flowered, in fact, as at no time in Afghanistan=92s = history.=20 More than 100 new publications have launched, including about ten=20 publications for women. The nation=92s quickly hammered-out press = law is=20 filled with vagaries and loopholes, and Afghan journalists have = gleefully=20 taken advantage. =93This is it,=94 says Dashty, pounding his fist = on the table=20 in his offices. =93Right now is the only real period of freedom of = press in=20 Afghanistan.=94

Of course, building anything in one of the poorest countries in = the=20 world is no easy task. Per capita income here is less than $500 a = year.=20 The phones don=92t work between cities. Mobile and satellite = phones have=20 arrived, but they cost far more than most local media outlets can = afford.=20 Radio Solh (Peace), two hours north of the capital, has its Kabul=20 correspondent file by handing his dispatches to a taxi driver. = Fewer than=20 one in three Afghans can read.

An even more complicated challenge is finding independent = journalists=20 in an environment where political positions are forged in spilled = blood=20 and the rhetoric of martyrdom. Massoud, who for all of his faults = and=20 blessings was a warlord who killed other Afghans, continues to = haunt. His=20 picture appears in the studio of Radio Solh, the only = non-government radio=20 station in the country, up in the Shomali Plain city of = Jabolasaraj. It=20 hangs in the offices of Kabul Weekly. A massive portrait of = Massoud hangs=20 at the new offices of Mihan, a biannual cultural magazine that = recently=20 moved its offices from exile in Iran back to a smart neighborhood = in=20 Kabul. =93We want to be independent of Ahmed Shah Massoud,=94 says = Ebrahim=20 Kawesh, political editor of Radio Solh. But =93it=92s going to = take a while.=94=20

Massoud=92s complicated legacy also has a positive side. Afghan = journalists wave his photo as their American counterparts wave the = First=20 Amendment, and projects to which he had some connection =97 such = as Radio=20 Solh and the Kabul Weekly =97 enjoy something akin to immunity = from official=20 and semi-official attempts at intimidation and censorship.

Then there are the warlords. Hamid Karzai may be a committed = democrat=20 who lived in the United States and understands the value of a free = press,=20 but the former mujahedeen commandants who control all but the area = around=20 Kabul do not. They all have the blood of innocents on their hands, = and=20 don=92t take kindly to independent journalists who might try to = dredge up=20 past misdeeds or flesh out current exploits.

Afghanistan=92s nascent press is prodded on by foreign NGOs = like Aina, a=20 nonprofit group, funded partly by UNESCO with the goal of helping = media=20 flourish. Some of its employees =97 mostly French business school = graduates=20 =97 are refugees from the Internet bubble, and it=92s probably no = coincidence=20 that Aina operates much like a dot-com incubator: would-be = publishers=20 submit proposals to the organization, which might grant them a = little=20 cash, a little space to work, and a lot of moral support.

In Aina=92s ramshackle smoke-filled complex, in front of the = foreign=20 ministry compound, are the offices of Kabul Weekly and Malalai, a = women=92s=20 magazine supported by the French Marie Claire. A recent issue = included an=20 interview with the =93only parachutist woman in Afghanistan=94 and = an article=20 titled =93Women=92s Rights Trampled,=94 grazing the touchy subject = of men=92s=20 fears about women=92s liberation. Another women=92s magazine, Roz, = is=20 supported by the French Elle.

In the same complex is the office of Zanbil-e-Gham, a biting, = satirical=20 monthly that was the brainchild of Osman Akram, a jolly = middle-aged former=20 engineer who was fearless enough to publish fifteen underground = editions=20 of his scathing, illustrated =92zine during the Taliban years. =

Akram and others are in a mad rush to expand the boundaries of = the=20 permissible before a clampdown begins. They don=92t take today=92s = relative=20 press freedoms for granted. Maybe more than any other people in = the world,=20 Afghans know the clock can go backwards, and many have followed = events in=20 the Islamic Republic of Iran, where an independent press was = brutally=20 crushed by the clerical government in the late 1990s.

The sprint to expand freedom began just hours after the first = reports=20 that the Taliban had fled Kabul in November. Back then, a group of = broadcasters and Northern Alliance mujahedeen roused Jamila = Mujahed from=20 her sleep and asked Afghanistan=92s best-known female newscaster = if she=92d be=20 willing to be the first female voice on Kabul=92s airwaves since = the=20 Taliban=92s five-year reign of terror began. She didn=92t = hesitate. In her=20 slippers, chaos and gunslingers still ruling the streets, she was = hurried=20 to the studios. All the transmitters had been destroyed in the = U.S.=20 bombing campaign, so the broadcasters dragged an old ten-kilowatt=20 transmitter out of the basement of the government-owned radio = station. It=20 couldn=92t reach beyond a few miles outside Kabul, so Mujahed=92s = first words=20 were as much for the history books as the few who could hear her: = =93Dear=20 fellow citizens of Kabul, the Taliban have fled Kabul.=94

Still, Mujahed, who is the editor-in-chief of Malalai as well = as a=20 television newscaster, says she remains just as terrified of some = of the=20 former warlords now running Afghanistan as she was of the Taliban. = =93Many=20 of the current leaders of Afghanistan raped and killed women in = the name=20 of Islam,=94 she says.

Indeed, just after female voices began broadcasting over Radio = Solh=20 last October, one of the warlords denounced it as immoral, = threatening to=20 take matters into his own hands. After asking the women to get off = the air=20 for a couple days, Mohammad Fahim, Massoud=92s successor, got the = women back=20 to work. But Rasoul Sayef, the warlord who started the crisis, = remains a=20 powerful member of Afghanistan=92s judiciary.

Save for Radio Solh, all the broadcast outlets in Afghanistan = are=20 government-owned. (There is a dearth of proposals to create new = outlets,=20 despite the problem of illiteracy.) And almost all the major = players in=20 broadcast have ties to one political group or another.

One player who remains unconnected to the past wars is Barry = Salaam,=20 the responsible and mature twenty-three-year-old managing editor = of Good=20 Morning Afghanistan, an independently produced one-hour morning = news show=20 on government-owned Radio Afghanistan, which is broadcast in Dari = and=20 Pashto, the two main languages of the country. His fluency in both = languages allows Salaam to edit scripts in either, in a country = where the=20 blood feud between the two ethno-linguistic groupings remains = volatile.=20

The head of his family despite being the youngest of eight = children,=20 Salaam spent almost all of the Taliban years in Kabul, studying = journalism=20 and making the mundane daily newsletter of the International = Committee of=20 the Red Cross he edited the hottest read coming out of = Afghanistan.

He is careful. Journalism in Afghanistan, even during this = period of=20 relative freedom, requires a steady hand. And a nervous control = freak like=20 Salaam may be the perfect person at the helm. =93When you have = editorial=20 independence in a situation like this, you=92re not supposed to do = anything=20 to undermine the peace process,=94 he says, his face so young you = almost=20 expect to see braces each time he opens his mouth. =93You don=92t = have to use=20 all of your freedom at once. We have to go gradually. We have to = make=20 people get used to us and the way we do the news. We=92re very = careful with=20 our freedom.=94

In a sense, his Good Morning Afghanistan is quite an ordinary = news=20 broadcast: current events, weather, traffic, and sports. And a = touch of=20 Salaam=92s journalistic irreverence. =93We had the minister of = construction on=20 the show, and grilled him about when they=92re going to fix the = potholes in=20 the road,=94 he says in perfect English. =93Two weeks later we had = a reporter=20 in the streets describing the work crews fixing the holes on the = roads.=20

=93I love that story."

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WORLDAfghanistan: A Nascent Free = Press Seizes=20 the Moment (Carefully)

WORLD
Afghanistan: A Nascent Free = Press Seizes=20 the Moment (Carefully)