Guardian: (Afghanistan) Killers and censors bring fledgling media under fire from all sides

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Killers and censors bring fledgling media under fire from all sides

US and Kabul officials get tough with journalists amid
growing insurgent violence

Declan Walsh in Kabul
Thursday April 26, 2007
The Guardian

A day after being freed from captivity by the Taliban, the Italian
journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo stepped off a plane in Rome,
beaming with relief and raising his arms in a victory salute. But
back in Afghanistan his translator, Ajmal Nakshbandi, remained in
Taliban hands.

-snip-

All sides consider news as a weapon of war, even those professing
to defend press freedom. On March 4 American soldiers ripped
cameras from local reporters in Nangarhar and deleted their pictures
after a convoy of marines shot at least 10 people and wounded 33
in the aftermath of a suicide attack.

A US commander later justified the deletions on the basis that
"untrained" Afghans might "capture visual details that are not as
they originally were". A preliminary military inquiry, publicised
last week, suggested what those sensitive details could have been:
contrary to the soldiers' earlier claims, investigators found that
all of the killed civilians had been unarmed.

Faced with a swelling insurgency and mounting criticism, Afghanistan's
government has also taken a tougher line with the media. Last week
three journalists with Tolo, a popular television station, and four
from the Associated Press, were detained on orders from the attorney
general, Abdul Jabar Sabet, who claimed he had been misrepresented
by a reporter.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,2065443,00.html