Afghanistan Watch: Mohseni on preventing erosion of press freedoms

Today's Wall Street Journal printed an oped by Saad Mohseni, director of the Moby Media Group (which owns and operates Tolo TV, Lemar TV, Arman FM and Afghan Scene Magazine.) Mohseni argued that of all Afghanistan's successes, "perhaps none is more amazing than the success of its media. In name, at least, we now have a free press." But he also notes recent erosions of press freedom, including arrests, intimidation, and a June regulation prohibiting certain "provocative articles" against mujahideen. The press faces challenges from Islamists and politicians, especially the Ministry of Information and Culture. Meanwhile, Karzai does not seem to place press freedom at the top of his busy "to-do" list (Mohseni cites an Aug 19 speech in which the president "chose to criticize the media for exceeding their mandate and urged them to control themselves more.") Here is an excerpt from the piece, which is available in full to subscribers. ("Pressing for Freedom," Wall Street Journal, By Saad Mohseni. KABUL, March 9):

Afghanistan today boasts seven private television channels, dozens of private radio stations and hundreds of newspapers and magazines...Over the past year, however, there have been troubling signs that not everyone in the Afghan government supports this development. The pressure comes on many fronts...MORE

Photo: Saad Mohseni translates a Tolo TV clip for former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios -- and his guest Rush Limbaugh...

Some of the heat comes from Islamists who fear that free media will corrupt Afghan morals. Some attempts to constrain the press draw support from corrupt politicians who fear their misdeeds will be exposed by enterprising reporters. Others fear that the media’s reporting on war crimes from the past two decades will awaken old demons and create unnecessary social tensions. Some officials are simply uncomfortable with the idea of a free press and are genuinely afraid open media will destabilize the young regime.

These elements exert influence in complex and often opaque ways. As far as we can tell from the outside, the Ministry of Information and Culture is the main center of anti-press activity. Several high profile incidents, especially a conflict between Minister Abdul Karim Khuram and the management of government-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan, raise questions about Mr. Khuram’s commitment to a free press. He has also spearheaded moves to stop the broadcast of programs of Al Jazeera English by Lemar TV, asking the Attorney General’s Office to press charges against the broadcaster despite the lack of any law authorizing such a prosecution.

As for Mr. Karzai, despite his obvious commitment to democracy, there are signs that he might have so much on his plate that media freedom is slipping through the cracks as he tries to kick-start the economy, clamp down on corruption, eradicate narcotics, and fight terrorists and insurgents. That, at least, is one explanation for his Independence Day address on Aug. 19, in which, rather than congratulating the free press for its achievements despite horrendous conditions, he chose to criticize the media for exceeding their mandate and urged them to control themselves more.

Presidential speeches aside, the growing pattern of pressure on the media has manifested itself in a variety of more worrying ways over the past 12 months:

The government has sought to impose standards limiting “negative” stories from the battlefield through a curious three-page document bearing the hallmarks of a new regulation that was delivered to the media on June 18, 2006. Among the prohibited activities: “Broadcasting and publication of provocative articles which are against the Mujahideen [who fought the Soviets in the 1980s] and call them ‘warlords’ and those which call technocrats as ‘Westernized’ and subjects of this nature which create division and conflict.” The paper also admonished news outlets, among other things, that “news of terrorist activities must not come as the lead story of the news.” The document lacked legal force since it had not been enacted by parliament, and it was quickly withdrawn when a controversy erupted, but the fact that it was prepared in the first place is a troubling sign.

Journalists are also increasingly subject to arrest and detention without charge. The most recent example is the detention on Jan. 18 of Sharif Hasanyar, the news coordinator of Tolo TV, who was held for 30 hours and released without charge. The questioning and detention came, as best we can tell, because Mr. Hasanyar had been in regular contact with the Taliban spokesman by telephone, like reporters from most other media organizations, local and foreign, operating in Afghanistan. He thus ran afoul of another provision in the document described above, although this kind of reporting is specifically protected under Afghanistan’s media laws.

Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission and various other Afghan and international agencies have documented other examples of harassment and violence directed at journalists around the country. Such violence often follows a contentious piece of reporting that targets a local leader. Hardly anyone is ever prosecuted for carrying out such an attack.

The Ministry of Information and Culture has attempted to limit footage of women on television. The Media Monitoring Commission, chaired by Mr. Khuram, summoned our station in early February to formally complain about “skin” on Tolo TV. The minister was specifically referring to Indian music video clips showing women dancing provocatively while clothed in attire that exposed their shoulders, arms or legs (below the knees).

Although such clips are tame by the standards of much of the rest of the world and had already been heavily censored to conform to local norms anyway, the ministry said the videos had generated complaints from Islamists who considered them raunchy and wanted further censorship. Such complaints don’t match our own experience at the station, where we are receiving many more complaints from young people who want “less” censorship of music videos than we already have.

Trouble has also been brewing at the public television broadcaster, RTA. The Ministry of Information and Culture has been waging a campaign to take direct control of the broadcaster despite the fact that foreign donors like Japan and the European Union have been funding RTA on the understanding that it will be converted into an independent public broadcaster. Most recently, armed agents entered RTA’s offices to forcibly remove key staffers who had run afoul of the ministry. The move prompted the resignation of RTA’s director, Najib Roshan.

Far from a legitimate attempt to impose accountability on a public broadcaster for its use of public monies, the wrangling over RTA subverts the spirit of earlier agreements between Kabul and the international donors who have supported RTA. Our government promised then not to use RTA as a propaganda arm. And the armed response is entirely disproportionate.

Worst of all, draconian media laws proposed by the Ministry of Information and Culture could limit the media’s ability to inform and entertain by, for example, declaring that certain programs run against “Islamic values.” The term “against Islamic values” is not clearly defined in the text of the proposal or in any other laws, and added talk that the proposal would protect the “national interest” raises fears that it will become a tool to control all broadcasts, whether news or entertainment. The proposal now goes to the parliament, where it is expected to enjoy majority support in the lower house and perhaps the upper house. Mr. Karzai is expected to withhold his support, at least this time around, but perhaps only if international pressure persists.

These trends are attracting the concerned attention of a growing number of international organizations. Freedom House’s annual rating of press freedom in 2006 showed a reduction in media freedom in Afghanistan for the first time since the ousting of the Taliban. Reporters Without Borders’ 2007 Annual Report on Press Freedom notes that media freedom remains “fragile.” The head of the U.N. mission in Kabul, Tom Koenigs, has voiced his concern about many of these developments, especially the proposed media law.

Afghanistan’s rapid transformation from a political and economic basket case into a viable democratic state has been nothing short of miraculous. However, attempts to “control” the media—even if motivated by good intentions—will only hinder Afghanistan’s development as a democracy. It is understandable that some within the government feel threatened by the Taliban insurgency, but the government must not abandon the guiding principles of democracy in an effort to win the battle.

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March 09, 2007

Mohseni on preventing erosion of press freedoms

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