Afghans Beyond Taliban

A non-profit organisation that trained women journalists in Afghanistan has folded up. The Canada-based Institute for Media Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) has announced that it is filing for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy period officially began March 21 and a meeting of creditors is scheduled for April 11. 'Raw-e-Naw' (Dari)/'Newi Lara' (Pashtu) was launched in April, 2004 with the goal of...

The United States, Britain, and the Netherlands have all assailed the deal made with the Taliban by Italy and Afghanistan to secure the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, according to news agencies. Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo speaks during a news conference at the "La Repubblica" editorial headquarters in Rome March 21, 2007. The United States and Britain criticised...

Hundreds of protesters blockaded an Afghan hospital where freed Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was staying on Tuesday, demanding details of the death of his beheaded driver, news agencies have reported. More than 200 relatives and friends of executed driver Syed Agha protested outside the Italian-run Emergency hospital in the capital of southern Helmand province, Lashkar Gah, demanding...

Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released by the Taliban Monday after two weeks in captivity and days after his driver was executed, news agencies have reported. Sources privy to the deal told local Pajhwok Afghan News that the La Repubblica journalist was handed over to Italian officials in the Hazarjuft district of the southern Helmand province at 5:10pm (local time). "My head is...

Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo abducted by the Taliban in Afghanistan last week has appeared in a video shown on television Wednesday appealing to Premier Romano Prodi to work for his release. TV grab from Euronews shows an image from video footage, received by non govenmental organisation Emergency, of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo who was abducted 10 days ago by a Taliban...

The US military has defended the erasing by an American soldier of journalists' footage of the aftermath of a suicide bombing and shooting in Afghanistan last week, the Associated Press (AP) has reported. The military said that publication could have compromised an investigation and led to false public conclusions. An Afghan man cries as he shouts anti-American slogans after a car bomber attacked...

Karachi, 8 March (AKI) - For Syed Saleem Shahzad, correspondent for Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI), the news of the capture of Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in southern Afghanistan brings back vivid memories. Last November Shahzad along with another Pakistani reporter, Qamar Yousafzai, was seized in the restive Helmand province by Taliban fighters who accused the two...

The Taliban has claimed to have “captured” an Italian journalist and his Afghan translator and driver in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a veteran reporter for the daily La Repubblica based in Afghanistan, has been out of contact with his newspaper since Sunday. The Taliban Tuesday said it had seized a man it alleged was a spy posing as a...

Reporters Without Borders today hailed the release of radio journalist Abdul Qudoos after nearly a year in detention. He was set free after a court in the eastern province of Parwan decided on 31 January to drop the charges of attempted murder that had been brought against him. “It is deplorable that Qudoos spent 11 months in prison for no reason,” the press freedom organisation said. “He is the...

KABUL (AFP) - Television stations are trying to introduce some kind of modernity into conservative and mostly illiterate Afghanistan but their efforts are being threatened by planned changes to media laws. Parliament, dominated by former mujahedin -- commanders of the jihad or holy war to resist the Soviet invasion -- is due in the coming weeks to amend the media law decreed two years ago by...