Afghanistan through its own media

By the Afghan team BBC Monitoring

The popular Tolo TV station has angered conservatives

Afghanistan has a lively media scene, with hundreds of publications and radio and TV stations.

Newspapers tend to speak to the political elite, believing that it is the sector of society that can bring about change. The press tackles issues openly, including sensitive themes such as corruption and nepotism.

But some matters are not dealt with by state-owned media. Government-run TV, for example, shies away from openly criticising the regional powerhouses of Pakistan and Iran.

This is not to say that the private media are fully independent. Aina (Mirror) TV is known to support the northern-based warlord Abdorrashid Dostum.

The most popular TV station remains the privately-owned Tolo (Dawn). Its investigative journalism and entertainment programmes are favoured by the younger generation and resented by the conservative sectors of society.

Domestic politics: Karzai's woes

Several fronts have opened against President Hamed Karzai simultaneously and factions have emerged within his government.

The United National Front - an unlikely alliance of former mojahedin and communists set up last autumn - says it wants to work with Mr Karzai, but its proclaimed aim is to switch to a parliamentary system and elected provincial governors.

Mr Karzai's own advisor, former Defence Minister Marshal Fahim, who is in the Front, has said the president is "weak" and has set up "a unilateral government", instead of one representing all ethnic groups.

And in May, Mr Karzai was forced to defend his foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar-Spanta, through the Supreme Court after a majority of MPs voted to impeach him over alleged poor handling of Iran's deportation of Afghan refugees.

TV stations were cautious in their reporting, while newspapers were outspoken. The independent Daily Afghanistan said the impeachment case "demonstrated parliament's immaturity" and added that the vote had been "rigged".

The pro-government Weesa criticised the foreign minister for revealing what it called "a high-level secret"; that Iran's ulterior motive may have been to gain access to Afghanistan's water supplies.

"If Iran is exerting pressure on our country because of Helmand river water... why did the foreign minister not reveal this before?" the paper asked.

The views presented in the Afghan press may point to factions emerging within the government.

Relations with powerful neighbours

Distrust between Afghanistan and Pakistan stems largely from Kabul's complaints that Islamabad allows Taleban militants based in Pakistan to cross the border and mount attacks inside Afghanistan.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have a long-running border dispute

The two countries have long-standing border disputes and their forces clashed several times in May after Pakistan began to fence parts of the border despite strong objections from Afghanistan.

After a one-day visit to Kabul on 5 June, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz pledged his country's willingness to cooperate on security, but reaction in the local media was negative.

"Pakistani actions have forced us once again to doubt the sincerity of the Pakistani premier's comments because experience has shown that Pakistan does the opposite of what it says," wrote the independent daily Rah-e Nejat.

Meanwhile, tension has mounted between Afghanistan and Iran over accusations that Iran is supplying arms to the Taleban, as well as Iran's deportation of Afghan refugees.

Afghan media reported that allegations over Iranian-made arms captured in western Afghanistan had been played down by Mr Karzai and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

The media are upset at Afghanistan getting caught up in the US-Iran dispute.

"The decision by those countries to use Afghanistan as a platform for their long-standing hostility is unacceptable and unjustifiable," wrote Rah-e Nejat.

Ongoing insecurity

The media in Afghanistan are divided over the reasons for the deteriorating security situation.

Perhaps resorting to military action alone is not the solution to the problem state-run paper Etefaq-e Eslam

The state-run daily Hewad blames warlords and the gun culture - the legacy of nearly three decades of turmoil.

But a roundtable discussion on Tolo TV suggested that the government's "weak" response to security incidents had contributed to the rising incidence of suicide attacks in the capital.

Participants in a discussion programme on Aina TV accused "specific circles" within the government of destabilising the situation in the north in an effort to form a powerful central government at the expense of local politicians.

Civilian casualties and the behaviour of foreign troops in Afghanistan have also been mentioned as factors contributing to security problems.

"Uncoordinated and arbitrary operations, especially by US troops... have spurred feelings against foreign troops in the country and convinced the people to help the Taleban," said Rah-e Nejat.

Arman-e Melli highlighted the links between reconstruction and security and said one of the reasons for Nato's "failure" in Afghanistan was the lack of attention given to reconstruction and improving the living conditions of the people.

Etefaq-e Eslam attempted to answer questions raised by ordinary Afghans puzzled by the lack of success in restoring stability, despite the international community's good will.

"Perhaps resorting to military action alone is not the solution to the problem," it said

Corruption at "unprecedented" levels

Both private and state-run publications run features on what is seen as rampant corruption.

Profession, knowledge, experience, official background and skills are still ignored in most ministries and independent departments independent paper Arman-e Melli

Hewad captured the general mood in the media when it said "government and public property has been plundered to a degree unprecedented in the 5,000-year history of this war-hit country."

Arman-e Melli went a stage further, saying most of those accused of corruption "are supported by some senior officials".

"Profession, knowledge, experience, official background and skills are still ignored in most ministries and independent departments."

Sounding a note of pessimism, the independent weekly Mosharekat-e Melli believes the government may have given up the fight.

"Fighting corruption... is no longer the government's plan, and this might be because of the government's failure in tackling them effectively."

Failure of drugs policy

Private and state media approach the drugs issue in the same way: they focus on the failure of the official counter-narcotics strategy, blaming corruption and government inefficiency.

There is sympathy for labourers in the poppy fields

Afghan media are also aware of the way the drugs problem has damaged the country's reputation.

While official media appeal to farmers to stop growing poppy for the sake of Afghanistan's reputation abroad, independent media generally side with poppy farmers, pointing out that the West has failed to tackle the demand for drugs.

And in a recent TV interview, an Afghan professor said that it was probable that foreign forces were themselves involved in the drugs trade.

There is growing interest in other aspects of the drugs problem, including addiction and health issues.

Recently, there have been a growing number of factual reports about the increase in the number of female and teenage drug addicts.

While addiction among these groups of society has been linked to poverty and ignorance, the prominent view is still that addiction is a habit that young male Afghan refugees picked up in exile in Iran and Pakistan.

Media freedom

The government is concerned over mounting criticism in the media on issues such as corruption, the insurgency and the alleged disproportionate distribution of power and aid in the country. This has prompted it to try to rein in the independent media.

Journalists face a growing threat of attack

In April, the legal adviser of Tolo TV, Mohammad Abdollah, was summoned to the Senate.

"The Senate's Complaints Commission had a meeting with officials of Tolo... and said the station's programmes were against constitutional law and Islamic values," said the official Bakhtar news agency.

"The legal adviser of Tolo TV said the station would make changes to its programmes as part of an understanding with parliament and the Ministry of Culture and Information," the report added.

There are encouraging signs though. It appears that the conservatives and traditionalists have adjusted themselves to the reality of co-existing with independent media.

Following meetings between the National Union of Afghan Journalists and MPs, parliament - largely dominated by former mojahedin - loosened the government's grip by amending the Media Law.

This was cautiously welcomed by media activists. Sayed Fazel Sancharaki, the president of the journalists' union, was quoted as saying that the "new law... is better than the former law and is in the interest of media officials and journalists".

The amended law, now before Mr Karzai for approval, strips the Information and Culture Ministry of some powers that were seen to be aimed at curbing freedom of expression.

Despite this, activists remain concerned over numerous prohibitions, such as those on defamation and insult, that are vague and open to interpretation.

As the independent daily Cheragh noted, freedom of expression was "the only achievement" of the government in the last five years, something that had to be safeguarded.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.

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