5 July 2006
MEDIA GUIDELINES THREATEN PRESS FREEDOM
In what has been called the biggest threat to the independence of the media and free expression since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001, Afghanistan's intelligence agency has issued a list of guidelines urging journalists to curtail their reporting on the country's deteriorating security situation.
Issued by the National Intelligence Directorate (NID) on 18 June 2006, the guidelines ban "Reports that aim to represent that the fighting spirit in Afghanistan's armed forces is weak," and "Negative propaganda, interviews and reports which are provocative or slanderous and which are against the presence [in Afghanistan] of the international coalition forces and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force]," according to Human Rights Watch.
The guidelines also say news of "terrorist" activities should not be lead stories, and provocative statements by, or interviews with, "terrorists" should not be published or broadcast.
They do not say what penalties journalists would incur if they ignored the instructions nor how they fit with the Afghan Constitution's provisions protecting free expression.
The guidelines have prompted calls of concern from Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).
According to CPJ and RSF, media organisations were first told about the guidelines in a meeting with a government official on 12 June, where they were handed a list of recommendations reportedly signed by the head of the NID, Amrullah Saleh.
Those who attended the meeting included representatives of Tolo TV, the magazines "Kilid" and "Sibat", "Kabul Weekly" and Pajwak Afghan News Service.
On 19 June, President Hamid Karzai's office issued a statement denying that the government had issued restrictions. It described the guidelines as a "request" reflecting "the need to help the nascent media sector in Afghanistan to approach the complex issue of terrorism and terrorist activities in a principled manner."
On 22 June, Karzai gave a press conference insisting that the directive is not a threat to freedom of expression. "We defend press freedom because without it the country cannot develop. You should be confident that there will be press freedom and that I will support it," he said.
Visit these links:
- Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/21/afghan13605.htm
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/protests/06ltrs/asia/afghan23june06pl.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=18083
- Afghan Journalists Slam Media Restrictions:
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=321894&apc_state=henparr
- BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5140380.stm
- Crisis Group Report on Afghanistan's Security Situation: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3071&l=1
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