Afghanistan: A special focus on the administration of Hamid Karzai over the past ten years, when after the fall of the Taliban, the Afghan people hoped that a new era of freedom of speech was beginning to the contrary, under the Karzai regime, the newly freed media has been suppressed through government statutes and actions, and violent extra-legal autocratic political and religion-based organizations, which the government has been unable or unwilling to control.
Since the beginning of the Karzai regime in 2002, Afghan journalists have been murdered, and more than 100 violent physical attacks against journalists have been logged. Scores have fled Afghanistan after receiving threats against them and their families. (1)
Some 400 newspapers and magazines, 25 television channels and 60 radio stationswere established after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Despite these apparent successes, Afghanistan's ambitions of free media have been pitted against conservative norms and intimidation, leading many journalists to place their survival above all else., That requires abiding by numerous unwritten rules. Sometimes it means turning a blind eye to political corruption. The country's powerful warlords are never to be criticized, and religious issues are best avoided. Addressing problems associated with drugs and kidnappings comes with the risk of violent retribution. (2)
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) has registered 24 physical attacks, 30 cases of death threats, 15 arrests and seven kidnappings involving journalists between June 2007 and January 2010, RSF said that in that period, local NGOs have documented 50 press-freedom violations in Afghanistan, 28 of them by the authorities and six by the Taliban.
In the past two years, at least five journalists, including two women Zakia Zaki and Shekeba Sanga Amaj, have been killed in connection with their work.
The most recent death occurred on January 10 in Kandahar, when 23-year-old cameraman Ahmad Jawed (also known as Jawed Yazamy), who worked as a freelancer for Canadian media outlets, was killed in a drive-by shooting.
The killing was followed by peaceful demonstrations by journalists in Herat and Kandahar, while reporters and journalism students in Kabul protested the growing pressure on media. (3)
Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Kabul, said the U.S. government is "watching closely" the media changes and has discussed the issue with the Afghan government. "We hope they can be resolved to the satisfaction of all the parties—protecting the security of theAfghan people while bolstering freedom of information and expression enshrined in the Afghan constitution," she said.
Mr. Karzai's government denies it is limiting press freedoms. A recent statement from the presidential palace said Mr. Karzai "remains committed to support the freedom of expression and media”. (4)
Journalists in Afghanistan are now facing a paradoxical situation: for all the gains made by the independent press after the fall of the Taliban regime, it is the supposedly democratic government that is emerging as the greatest impediment to a reporter’s work — as well as the greatest potential threat to his or her safety.
