Herat Media Freedom Alarm

Journalists in the western Afghanistan province of Herat insist local and foreign officials are refusing to cooperate with them, hampering their ability to produce balanced reports and restricting freedom of speech.

Media sources allege that officials, both security and civilian, have been ordered by their superiors not to respond to requests for information and comment.

The rapid growth of the media has been hailed as one of the biggest successes since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, with dozens of television and radio stations in operation, along with hundreds of newspapers.

However, progress has not been straightforward. Although freedom of speech is guaranteed by the constitution, journalists have been threatened, beaten and defamed, while some have been imprisoned and a number even killed.

“Freedom of speech is faced with a great challenge in Herat province,” said Fawad Ahmadi, the director of the South Asia Media Free Association in Afghanistan, claiming that reporters now had to spend hours, if not days, attempting to find an official willing to speak to them.

“In some cases, the officials not only do not give answers but they also argue with the reporters, disrespecting the media community.”

VOA reporter Faruq Faizi said he had faced this problem on numerous occasions. Once, he recalled, “I needed the opinion of the border police regarding some matter. When I told him that I was a reporter, he said with extreme disrespect that he did not have time to waste on me. He hung up the phone and never gave me an interview.”

Khalil Amiri, the editor-in-chief of Radio Faryad, claimed that recently military officials in Herat had been preventing their spokesmen from speaking to reporters.

“This is a difficult situation,” he said. “The government and the foreigners come out with slogans about human rights, democracy and freedom of speech on the one hand and they suffocate freedom of speech on the other.

“This action by the officials means the media is not able to inform people about developments in their country. Media outlets are forced to rely on websites of foreign media.”

Sharafodin Stanekzai, the deputy head of the committee for the protection of reporters in Herat province, said that he had been informed that only the Herat governor’s spokesperson was authorised to speak to the media.

“The current job of the reporters in Herat is just to put their recorders before the government officials in Herat,” he said. “They will say whatever they wish and the reporter has to publish them.”

This in turn, he went on, was damaging the credibility of journalists, “Although, we have talked about these issues with the civil and military officials of Herat several times, these meetings have had no positive results.”

One security official, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that his superiors had prevented him from speaking to reporters.

But Abdul Rawuf Ahmadi, the spokesman of the 606 Ansar police zone in western Afghanistan, denied that there were any such restrictions.

Any problems, he said, stemmed from recent changes in the police leadership and structure, which meant that those tasked with dealing with the media had not yet familiarised themselves with procedures.

Ali Shah Bahra, the director of information and culture in Herat, expressed surprise over reporters’ complaints, saying this was the first time he had heard of such problems.

“The directorate of information and culture supports the reporters and it is its job to take action in addressing the issue as soon as possible,” he said, adding that his department would urge government officials to cooperate with the media.

Journalists in Herat also complain that the international military official in the region do not respond to their requests for interviews, but coalition forces stress that information has to come through the appropriate channels.

Major Igor Piani, public relations officer of the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, in western Afghanistan, says that regional offices were not authorised to speak to the media and that all requests for information needed to be coordinated with Kabul.

“This information can be provided when they take the phone number and email address of the responsible individuals from us and contact them for more complete information,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ania media monitoring organisation has reported that there had been a 32 per cent decrease in violence against reporters in 2010, with some 58 cases reported across Afghanistan.

According to Stanekzai, journalists are facing less intimidation because they had been coerced into writing favourably about the authorities.

“Critical reports about the government’s performance are not written,” he said. “The journalists are exercising self-censorship, because no one will listen to them if they are beaten.”

Veteran Herat journalist Wali Mohammad Hadid told IWPR, “When the media criticise the government’s record, they face serious reactions from local officials. If the situation continues like this, freedom of speech will disappear from Herat.”

Shahpur Saber is an IWPR-trained journalist in Herat.