Afghanistan

Members of Afghanistan's fledging news media are up in arms over a recent government directive that they say is the first step toward imposing censorship on journalists. The uproar began last month when the National Security Directorate first circulated a list of restrictions on journalistic activities. According to the document, the news media are prohibited from publishing reports or interviews...

Journalists who have seen the directive say it has no official stamp or signature. But sources claim it was shown to media representatives at the National Security Directorate on 12 June and distributed a week later with a warning against "publishing or copying" its contents. The document contains at least 20 recommendations for the Afghan media - including a ban on reports that "weaken public...

The most surprising thing about a new set of draconian instructions telling Afghanistan’s journalists what they can and cannot say is the reaction - vocal accusations that the government is trying to curb media freedom. The furore began on June 19, when the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate, circulated a list of bans and restrictions on journalistic activities to local...

June 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Human Rights Watch (HRW) today urged the Afghan government to revoke immediately a recent directive restricting the freedom of the press to report on violence and other things that might weigh on public opinion. HRW says in a statement posted on its website that the directive -- distributed by Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate -- demands...

Tokyo: The Tokyo District Court granted refugee status Tuesday to an Afghan journalist, nullifying an earlier decision by the justice minister denying him asylum and ordering him deported. Presiding Judge Toshihiko Tsuruoka said the man, whose name was withheld to protect his identity, would face persecution in his homeland for reporting news stories critical of Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers...

KABUL -- As a cameraman in the Afghan parliament, Omid Yakmanish thought he had a routine job, until he was attacked and threatened with death. It began when he filmed a parliamentary brawl and an attempted attack on a female MP last month. His footage was an embarrassment to many politicians, and the reaction was swift and violent. First he was confronted and slapped by an MP who had once been a...

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns an attack by security guards on a three-member Ayna TV crew that went to the Afghan parliament on 27 May 2006 to cover the selection of candidates for the presidency of the Supreme Court. "This use of violence was a serious obstruction to the work of the press," RSF said. "We call on the authorities to punish the security guards responsible and...

Prague, 29 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan journalist Ali Mohaqeq Nasab, the editor of the "Hoqoq-e-Zan" (Women's Rights) monthly, was sentenced to two years in prison in October on blasphemy charges. An appeals court reduced that to a six-month suspended sentence last week, after Nasab -- who is also an Islamic scholar --apologized for articles he had written that questioned the harsh punishment...

An Afghan magazine editor jailed for publishing anti-Islamic articles was freed on December 24. Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, editor of monthly Haqooq-e-Zan (Women's Rights), was arrested in October and sentenced to jail after complaints about his articles. He had been convicted on October 22 and sentenced to two years of hard labour. SHADOWED: The sun shines over the photo of Ali Mohaqiq Nasab, the editor...

The well-publicised case of a magazine editor jailed for blasphemy could soon take a more ominous turn, with a state prosecutor threatening to press for the death penalty. Mohaqeq Nasab, editor of Huquq-e-Zan, Women’s Rights, was found guilty of blasphemy on October 22, and sentenced to two years at hard labour. Nasab’s offence included publishing articles that, among other things, questioned the...