Afghanistan: Media Outlets Under Siege

Afghan officials and international donors like to promote the country's "lively, free and privately owned media." It is a success story highlighted in both Afghanistan's much-toted National Development Strategy and at donor conferences. Yet, in most newsrooms across Afghanistan the story is somewhat different.

Shrinking donor support, increasing pressure from the growing insurgency and deepening social fissures are placing many of Afghanistan's fledgling media outlets in jeopardy, journalists say.

Between 2002 and 2005, the international donor community poured large sums of cash into Afghan media development. Initially, the strategy appeared to pay off. The sector grew rapidly, and reached a broad audience. However, with a new constitution, and presidential and parliamentary elections completed by the autumn of 2005, the donor community moved on to the next phase of project funding, leaving a large number of outlets struggling to survive.

The reasoning behind the pattern of funding, says a senior diplomat well versed with Afghan media developments, was an assumption that the economy would recover and the private sector would step in to provide necessary support. The economic recovery fuelled by a vast private sector never materialized, but donors refused to change their funding strategy.

Though he has just won the Committee to Protect Journalist's 2008 Press Freedom award, Pajhwok News Agency's Managing Director Danish Karokhel's worries are reflected in charts hung on the walls of his office. Revenue and expenditure graphs show a large gap, and Karokhail has no way of knowing how long Pajhwok can survive.

"Hundreds of magazines and newspapers have ceased publication due to financial problems. Large numbers of journalists have become unemployed and turned to other professions, and the debacle is still going on," says Karokhel.

The financial crisis for Afghanistan's media comes at a time when other pressures have increased. While the window of security soon after the ouster of the Taliban allowed the media to question sources of authority and power with independence, the deepening conflict has reversed those gains. Parties to the conflict - from the Taliban to the US military - would like to use the media as a force multiplier and have increased pressure on journalists.

These pressures are compounded by the diminishing space for independent reporting. A growing area of the country is inaccessible because of the fierce fighting and lawlessness, which manifests itself in the form of kidnappings, robbery and killings. Journalists facing some of the most hostile terrain in the world have little support.

The Afghan government is also posing new challenges to media outlets' ability to disseminate information, as demonstrated by a media bill passed by parliament and awaiting a presidential signature. Article 45 prohibits works and materials contrary to Islam and the Constitution, works which are "defamatory," and "all works and materials that harm psychological security and the moral wellbeing of people."

The provisions, say journalists, are ambiguous. Any reporting on the ongoing conflict could be interpreted as causing harm to the psychological security of people, for example, since reporting on the growing violence will cause alarm.

Most importantly, it is unclear who would determine what constitutes 'Islamic content,' a vague term in a country where some people consider a woman without a burkha as un-Islamic and others see broadcast of any music as against the tenants of their faith.

"Whatever the laws are we would want them made as explicit as possible," says Jahid Mohseni, Co-Director of Moby Capital, a media group running the most successful and popular private television channel, Tolo TV. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Mohseni points out that it is not the environment or the limitations as much as the uncertainty that makes it difficult for media companies to operate. The current provisions, he says, create an opening for abuse.

Mohseni should know. Tolo's most popular Indian soap operas, as well as some other Indian serials telecast by other channels were banned by the Minister of Information and Culture, Abdul Karim Khurram, following an ambiguous decision last April. Khurram has defended the ban saying it was in response to the "demand of the people," adding that parents were worried about the influence of these programs. Mohseni however emphasises that the TV channel had made several modifications to the shows in keeping with public taste. Though the ban was never enforced, President Hamid Karzai supported it, saying TV channels could not air content against Afghanistan's culture. Given that the Indian soaps are big money earners for media businesses like Moby, the ban undoubtedly hangs over these entities like a Sword of Damocles.

"Rather than directly attacking media content that challenges them, those who are exposed as corrupt or misusing power will try to cast aspersions on a media outlet on grounds that its content is not in keeping with Islam," says a journalist who asked to remain anonymous.

Since the fall of the Taliban, media content has been subject to rigorous criticism from conservative sections like the Ulema Council, the highest body of Islamic scholars in Afghanistan. But the credence given to these complaints by the government has undergone a sea change. Whereas in 2003 the government blocked demands that women singers not be shown on TV, in the recent fracas over the Indian serials the Ulema Council was invited to help make a decision regarding the ban.

With dwindling support, increasing insecurity, rising costs and pressures from conservative society, it appears Afghan media's independence is shrinking. Media outlets have one of several choices for survival: they can look for funding from interest groups that will undermine their own independence, choose leisure programming over news, or they can close up shop. None of the choices is ideal, but the donor community, having armed Afghanistan's media with some skills, now appears content to let a success story disappear.

Editor's Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the past 18 years.