During the night of 26 September 1996, the Taliban militia entered the Afghan capital of Kabul and took control of the city. One of their first moves was to lock up the premises of national television and ban all TV broadcasts. Four years after they took power, the Taliban and their allies control more than […]
During the night of 26 September 1996, the Taliban militia entered the Afghan capital of Kabul and took control of the city. One of their first moves was to lock up the premises of national television and ban all TV broadcasts. Four years after they took power, the Taliban and their allies control more than 90% of the country. Their most recent military victories mean they are likely to gain permanent control of the valleys held by the opposition, particularly the Panjsher valley, currently held by Massud. Law and order reigns in Kabul. Afghanistan is now known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and Sharia (Islamic law) has been brought into force. The Taliban have introduced radical reforms, particularly concerning the status of women. Press freedom, which was already threadbare under the Taliban’s predecessors, has totally disappeared. All television broadcasts have stopped and the TV building is being used as a barracks. The sole radio station, which covers the whole country, puts out only religious programmes and official propaganda – even music has no place on the Taliban’s airwaves. The printed press – no more than ten publications throughout Afghanistan – is under government control. Only foreign media, working with the help of dozens of Afghan journalists living in exile, are trying to supply impartial news to a population manipulated by the “theology students”.
The Taliban have shown no qualms about murdering Afghan journalists who have fled to Pakistan. Many more have been threatened after writing reports criticising the Taliban’s domination of that country. These relentless attacks on press freedom are underpinned by the religious precepts taught in the madrasas, Pakistan’s Quranic schools. The danger that Pakistan, and particularly North-West Frontier Province, may also come under the Taliban’s influence is increasing as Pakistani religious movements engage in a power struggle with the military government over cable television.
The press is sacrificed
Newspapers have all but disappeared in Afghanistan. Since the fall of King Zahir Shah in 1973 and the end of the “decade of democracy”, the press has been in the hands of the government. After coming to power in 1978, the (communist) Democratic Party introduced a media system based on the Soviet model. About 100 publications, all dependent on state institutions, were scrupulously vetted by the security ministry’s “seventh committee”, which was in charge of censorship. When the Mujahideen took control in 1992, 90% of publications disappeared, either because they were banned or because they had been stripped of their material resources. The Taliban victory of 1996 marked the start of a complete takeover of the press: journalists fled the country by the dozen and new teams, made up of militiamen, “Pakistani advisers” and former journalists, were brought in to replace them. The Taliban arrested any journalists who had not managed to escape or go into hiding. Khalil Rostaqi, an intellectual and journalist with the newspaper Mayan, was arrested a week after the taking of Kabul and held for six months. Around the same time Abdulhanan Rahimi, a national television reporter, was arrested at his home. Accused of spying for General Massud and compiling “reports hostile to the Taliban”, he was kept in a cellar for five months with three other people. Before he was released, one of his captors warned him: “If you’re arrested a second time, you’re as good as dead.”
At the moment, fewer than ten publications appear regularly in Afghanistan for 21 million inhabitants: the English-language weekly Kabul Times, a showcase for the government abroad, the Pashto-language magazine Nangarhar and the Farsi-language newspapers Hewad (Fatherland), Anees (Companion) and Shariat. In the provinces, a few publications controlled by the local authorities appear irregularly. Their content is meagre, with no photos, illustrations, readers’ letters or editorials. All the news printed comes from ministries and the official news agency. Working conditions for journalists are very harsh: they have to take orders from the Taliban representatives assigned to editorial offices, and the state pays little and irregularly. Most journalists earn about 12 euros per month.
On the other hand, the dean of Kabul university insists that journalism courses are still taught “according to the criteria of international media and professional ethics”. He claims that what goes on outside the university does not concern him, and he refuses to comment on the Taliban’s attitude to press freedom. Needless to say, the university admits only male students.
In July 2000 the Taliban launched The Islamic Emirate, an English-language monthly published in Kandahar, to “counter the biased information put out by the enemies of Islam”. The first issue’s front page carried the headlines “No terrorist camps in Afghanistan” and “Extraditing Osama ben Laden would be scorning a pillar of our religion”. The Taliban have also set up a web site, afghan-ie.com, to push for recognition of their regime by the international community – even though they have banned Afghans from having internet access. In their government media, the Taliban frequently demand Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations, which is still officially occupied by the “government” of former president Borhannodin Rabbani.
One Afghan journalist who recently returned to Kabul was categorical: “There are no journalists left in Afghanistan today. They are working as religious officials. They are formally forbidden to write anything.” Another journalist, living in exile in France, took a similar view of those working for the country’s only radio station, Radio Sharia: “They put out 12 hours of programmes per day with no journalistic content whatever, and no songs. Sermons alternate with religious debates and propaganda in which they insult Massud and the Americans.”
A country with no pictures
It is forbidden on pain of death to take photographs of the Emir of Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Foreign journalists who have been covering Afghanistan since 1996 tell how nervous the militia are of still and video cameras, which they call “the Devil’s boxes”. “If we had had our cameras with us, they would have killed us”, said Salim Safi, a Pakistani journalist from the news agency News Network International who was arrested in September 1999 along with another reporter. After covering an opposition rally in the north of the country, he had decided to give his video camera to an Afghan friend to take to Peshawar. The Taliban accused the two men of entering Afghanistan illegally and of “spying for the Iranians”. Salim Safi told how the militia had threatened him: “You’re a well-known journalist. So what? You’ll be dead and no-one will know.” The journalists were only released five days later, after their employers appealed to the Afghan foreign ministry.
Even more recently, on 11 August 2000, three foreign journalists were arrested on the orders of the deputy minister for the maintenance of the faith and the suppression of vice, who accused them of trying to take pictures of a football match in Kabul. Pakistani Khawar Mehdi, who was with American freelance photographer Jason Flario and Brazilian reporter Pepe Scobar, said: “The religious police arrested us and interrogated us for two hours. They confiscated the photographer’s films, claiming we had broken their law, which forbids taking photos of living creatures.” Khawar Mehdi went on to give his impressions of the regime: “The Taliban have an increasing tendency to regard foreign journalists as spies. They don’t like us and they suspect us of the worst intentions when we go to Afghanistan.” Zaheer, an Afghan photographer aged about 60, commented: “Photography is dead in Afghanistan.” Another photographer, based in Peshawar, admitted that he had not been to Afghanistan since 1998. “It has become impossible for us to work and, what’s more, they tell us we have to grow beards”, he said.
As for television, the Taliban do not seem ready to authorise the broadcasting of programmes again. Abdul Hai Mutmaeen, minister of information and culture for the eastern province of Kandahar, told a foreign journalist in August 2000 that there was “no question of lifting the ban on television”. And yet, last July, during a seminar organised by the ministry and devoted to “the role of the media”, certain officials hinted that TV broadcasts might resume. The problem, according to the minister, is that “you can’t control what people watch”. It is also noteworthy that since they arrived in Kabul, the militia have systematically destroyed any broadcasting equipment they came across, publicly burning films and videotapes and smashing television sets, cameras, video cameras and hifi equipment.
Foreign press under control
Ever since the communists came to power, it has been very difficult to find western newspapers in Kabul. On the other hand, publications from neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran, found their way onto the Afghan market when the Mujahideen were in charge. On 27 February 1997 the information and culture minister announced a ban on the sale of books and magazines published abroad. Since then, Afghans have been deprived of Pakistani newspapers such as the Frontier Post, The News International and the Pashto-language Wahdat. More than 3,000 copies of Wahdat crossed the border in the mid-1990s to be sold in Afghanistan’s major cities. The Taliban have put an end to sales of all newspapers published in Pakistan and Iran. One circulation official for a Pakistani daily said the militia kept a close watch on deliveries. “The driver of the delivery van has been threatened on several occasions”, he said. “He is only authorised to take copies of the newspaper to institutions approved by the Taliban.” In practice, that means only a few ministries, diplomatic representatives, foreign journalists and international organisations are allowed to receive the newspapers. “In any case, there are no news-stands left in the country’s big cities”, the official added. Some Afghans still try to get hold of foreign newspapers. Wahdat is said to be handed round secretly. A Pakistani who recently returned home from Jalalabad said: “I have seen students stuffing newspapers down their trousers so that they won’t be caught. They know they are taking a major risk.” The only newspaper authorised by the Kabul authorities is Zarbe Momin, an Urdu-language weekly published in Karachi which supports the Taliban cause. An Afghan journalist in Peshawar said the Kabul government took a kindly view of the newspaper because it opposed “western propaganda against the Taliban”. Paradoxically, Afghan officials prefer to get their news from the Pakistani press. “They have no choice: they can’t ban all the media”, a Pakistani journalist commented wryly.
The Pashto-language daily Wahdat, published in Pakistan, did try to maintain a correspondent in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan, but Asadullah Hisar Shahiwal was forced to resign under pressure from the authorities. He was arrested several times because of reports published in Wahdat. The daily still has a correspondent in Kabul, Danish Karukhel, but an editorial executive based in Peshawar said he had very little room to manoeuvre. “His work as a journalist is restricted to interviewing Taliban officials. One critical report would be too dangerous for him.”
The Taliban frequently attempt to justify their ban on foreign media by claiming that their reporting on Afghanistan is “subjective”. The Kandahar information and culture minister said that “the Americans are against the Taliban” and “their media give a distorted view of the situation”.
Iranian journalists, and all those accused of “spying for Tehran” are also targets for the Taliban. On 7 August 1998, Mahmud Saremi, correspondent of the official Iranian news agency IRNA, and eight Iranian diplomats were murdered by Taliban militia at the Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in the north of the country. Their bodies are believed to have been left where they were killed for two days before being thrown into a mass grave. On 11 September the Kabul authorities confirmed the journalist’s death. A crisis arose between the two countries as a result of the incident. Media under Taliban control violently condemned Iran and its “spies”. All Tehran media were banned in Afghanistan and foreign journalists were thereafter accused of being Iranian spies.
Foreign journalists subject to draconian regulations
The Taliban have never hesitated to attack or threaten foreign journalists. Scarcely a month after they entered Kabul, militiamen stopped and beat up two Argentine journalists because they had tried to interview women. In November of the same year Dorothée Olliéric, a reporter with the French TV channel France 2, was prevented from working because she was not wearing a veil. In all, more than 25 foreign journalists have been arrested by militiamen since September 1996.
In August 2000 the authorities introduced strict regulations to cover the work of foreign reporters and special correspondents. On arrival in Kabul, they are given a list of “21 points to be respected”. The first is to give a true account of “what is really happening in Afghanistan” and not to “offend the people’s feelings”. Next comes a long litany of recommendations which might amount to no more than bureaucratic harassment in other countries but which testify to the Afghan authorities’ distrust of the foreign press and their determination to maintain strict control of reporters on Afghan soil. A document published by the information and culture department states that foreign journalists are not allowed to “go into private houses”, “interview an Afghan woman without the department’s permission” or “photograph or film people”. Journalists are also supposed to tell the department when they travel outside Kabul and to respect the country’s “no-go areas”. The authorities also insist that foreign correspondents work only with interpreters and other local assistants who have been approved by the department, register all their professional equipment with the relevant ministry and renew their work permits every year. Finally, bureau chiefs representing international media are obliged to attend government press conferences and to check that only the name “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” appears in their reports. No penalties for the infringement of these regulations are specified in the documents issued by the authorities.
Some Pakistani journalists have condemned official control of the interpreters assigned to foreign reporters. “Almost all of them are affiliated to the government”, a Peshawar journalist said. “People are afraid to say anything in front of them because everybody knows they will report back to the information and culture department. I’ve heard interpreters tell a foreign journalist the exact opposite of what the person being interviewed actually said.” Another means of keeping a close watch on foreign journalists: they are only allowed to stay at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel. They are banned from staying with ordinary citizens. An Afghan family who took in a Pakistani journalist was harassed by Taliban militia, said Jan Agha, an Afghan businessman living in exile in Peshawar.
In Kabul, foreign press correspondents are few and far between. Only the BBC and Agence France-Presse still have foreign correspondents living in the capital, although the authorities recently gave permission for the television channels CNN and Al-Jazeera to open offices. Kate Clark of BBC radio and Amir Shah of the American news agency Associated Press have often spoken about the pressure to which they are subjected. Kate Clark said security was so tight that “we have to work discreetly and very fast”. She added: “We have to grab the news and run away for fear of being victims of dirty tricks.”
Some Pakistani reporters who are used to covering the Afghan conflict have the greatest difficulty obtaining visas in Peshawar to go to Afghanistan. Ilyas Khan, a reporter with the Pakistani monthly The Herald, complained: “Western journalists obtain visas easily, whereas we, who speak the Afghans’ language, are prevented from entering their country.” He said this was a deliberate policy aimed at shielding the rapid deterioration of the situation in Afghanistan from the world’s gaze. “A foreign journalist with an interpreter cannot fully grasp developments and find the right information.” Shamin Shahid, Peshawar bureau chief of the daily The Nation, has had 20 visa applications refused by the Afghan consulate since February 1999.
Journalists in exile threatened
After the Taliban took Kabul and Jalalabad, most journalists fled either to parts of the country under opposition control or to Pakistan, Iran or Tajikistan. Of the 15 editorial staff of Subh Omid (The Morning of Hope), a fortnightly launched in March 1995, only two stayed in Kabul. Latif Pedram, one of its founders, went into hiding when the Taliban arrived for fear of being “beheaded”. “Exile has become the only way to survive when you’re an Afghan journalist”, he said. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has helped about ten journalists to go to western countries from Peshawar. Dozens more have reached a host country under their own steam. Afghans fleeing the Taliban have met up with others who left the country to escape the communists or the Mujahideen. Some have launched new media, while others are working for the five international radio stations that broadcast programmes in Farsi. Their broadcasts, and particularly those of the BBC, are extremely popular in Afghanistan. Latif Pedram said: “The international stations are the only mass media Afghanistan has ever known. They are both a lifeline and a window opening up to the rest of the world.”
These journalists are not out of danger just because they have left the country. Two Afghan reporters have narrowly escaped murder attempts in Pakistan since 1996. At least five others have been attacked or received death threats. Investigations by the Pakistani
police, which are often slapdash, have provided no clues to the identity of the attackers.
On 2 October 1998 two men fired at Abdul Hafiz Hamid Azizi as he was on his way home in Peshawar. A writer and regular columnist for the Afghan dailies Sahaar and Wahdat, Hamid Azizi, who is of Tajik origin, had received anonymous death threats. One of the letters warned him “not to publish articles and not to write political analysis. Otherwise you or your family will be punished by death, kidnapping or dishonour, as an example to others”. Three days later Najeeda Sara Bid, a reporter with the BBC’s Pashto-language service in Peshawar, escaped a murder attempt near her home. Like Hamid Azizi, she had received anonymous death threats. “They insulted me in the street and threatened me on the phone or by email”, she told Reporters Sans Frontières. A few weeks before the murder attempt, a group of Afghans stopped her in the street. Sara Bidi recalled their threats: “How long will you go on writing and defending women’s rights? Why don’t you stay at home? Afghanistan has an Islamic government and we will prevent you from working, even in Pakistan.” The journalist is sure that the Taliban are behind the harassment. By way of evidence, she produced a threatening letter written on Afghan interior ministry headed notepaper. A few months later Sara Bidi went into exile in Europe.
On 2 November 1998 Mohammad Hashim Paktianae, a journalist with the official press under communist rule and a cousin of former president Najibullah, was murdered at his home in Hayatabad. No inquiry has come up with any clues, but members of the journalist’s family believe the murder was connected with his work for the Afghan opposition.
In August 1998 Walliulah Saleem, head of the independent Afghan news agency Sahaar, based in Peshawar, received death threats for which he blamed the Taliban and went into hiding for four months. More recently, on 4 July 2000, Inayat-ul-Haq Yasini, a journalist with the daily Wahdat living in Peshawar, received anonymous phone calls threatening him with “the worst consequences”. In its 26 June issue, Wahdat had published the findings of an opinion poll of Afghan refugees living in camps in north-west Pakistan. The caller also complained that the article was too favourable to General Al-Maroof Shariati, who heads the National Afghan Council for Peace, an opposition party working in exile.
According to Afghan journalists questioned by Reporters Sans Frontières, the threats come both from the Taliban and from Pakistani religious groups, and even from “Pakistani secret services working hand in glove with the masters of Kabul”. The journalists said they had been summoned by Pakistani secret service officials who had asked them to fax the service all articles prior to publication, and not to work for Radio Tehran. One experienced Afghan reporter noted that several of his colleagues avoided writing reports criticising the Taliban for fear of being threatened or banned from entering the country.
The Kabul authorities are even thought to have drawn up a blacklist of Afghan journalists regarded as “undesirable” – a way of punishing them for writing “hostile” reports about the Taliban. One such journalist, Jamal Kotwal, left his country in 1993 after working for various media controlled by the communist regime. Now living in Peshawar, he has worked for the Iranian government station Radio Tehran, which has resulted in further attacks by the Taliban. “They have let me know, indirectly, that it was dangerous for me to continue to work for the official radio of a country that was threatening Afghanistan”, he said. “I resigned out of fear. Since then, I have stayed on the blacklist of journalists who are against the Taliban.” Jamal Kotwal is now working as a correspondent for the international German station Deutsch Welle.
According to one Afghan journalist, about 30 Afghan publications are currently being produced abroad. Ten or so can be accessed on the Internet. Published in Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Germany or the United States, these newspapers are produced mainly by opposition groups. A few dozen copies are smuggled into Afghanistan, where readers risk severe penalties. In Pakistan the daily Wahdat, published in Pashto, has achieved great popularity with the refugee population. Although its staff is composed mainly of Afghan journalists in exile, it also has a few reporters who support the Taliban. Janullah Hashimzada, for example, said he travels to Afghanistan regularly and never has any problems with the authorities. Describing himself as “pro-Taliban”, the young reporter claimed the international press made “unfair attacks on Afghanistan”.
A “talibanisation” of Pakistan?
“We shall not hesitate to use all the means at our disposal to force the government to close down cable television channels in this country”, warned Ehsan-ul-Haq, one of the leaders of the Islami Muttahida Inqilabi Mahaz movement, which groups 21 fundamentalist Moslem organisations in Pakistan. In June 2000 the religious movements of this country launched a campaign against cable television operators, which were authorised by the federal government at the start of the year. To stir up their supporters against “vulgar and obscene” TV programmes, the religious leaders issued a fatwa calling on all Moslems to “rise up against the Devil” represented by cable operators. In April 2000, activists from the Islami Tehrike-e-Taliban group had destroyed broadcasting equipment, particularly videotapes, at the Miranshah market, just a few miles from the Afghan border.
The campaign began in North-West Frontier Province, where the Taliban movement emerged. On 13 June 2000 a group of religious leaders called on the district council in Hyatabad, south-west of Peshawar, to close down six cable operators who had recently opened for business in the region. A district official asked the Peshawar police superintendent to close the operators. Zakria Khan, one of the investors targeted by the campaign, took up the story: “On 13 June the police summoned me to appear in Hayatabad police station. The police official told me that he had been asked to wind up my company and confiscate my equipment, but he had no written documents to back up his claims.” After talking to his lawyer, Zakria Khan decided to comply with the police official’s ruling for fear of having “big trouble” otherwise. He also told Reporters Sans Frontières how young fundamentalist activists had cut cables at night: “We managed to catch several of them, but the police let them go straight away under pressure from the religious leaders.”
On 21 June provincial governor Muhammad Shafique announced a ban on cable television operators in the region during a demonstration in Peshawar by several thousand religious campaigners. The next day, his spokesman issued a retraction after the federal government reminded him that a governor was not empowered to take such a decision. On 24 June Zakria Khan and five other cable operators filed an appeal with the Peshawar high court. The conflict with central government finally forced the provincial governor to resign on 13 August.
The cable operators were given official permission to resume business on 5 July, but the religious movements continued their protests, publishing highly aggressive statements in the leading regional and national newspapers. On 20 July one of the religious leaders said: “The Peshawar high court’s ruling is not in line with the constitution and with Islam. We will prevent the operators from working by force if the government does not do so by law.” In response, the federal government pointed out that the cable operators had valid licences, and said it would not tolerate attacks on their companies.
The fundamentalist movements threatened to continue their campaign against cinemas, and film magazines and posters. Yet the Pakistani mullahs questioned by Reporters Sans Frontières retorted that the religious movements had no intention of violating press freedom, because freedom of speech was fully guaranteed by Islam. Maulana Hasan Jan, a former member of the lower house of the Parliament for a fundamentalist party, told a story to illustrate their point: “One day, Omar, the second caliph, decided to lower a dowry. A woman protested, quoting a verse from the Koran. The caliph immediately reversed his decision, in accordance with the woman’s criticism.” For religious leaders, the caliph’s attitude shows how open Islam is to criticism.
The Pakistani religious movements have the power to impose some of their points of view to the local authorities, alternating political pressure, threats, demonstrations and acts of sabotage. The existence of a varied press, a basic element in Pakistan’s liberal Islam, has never been publicly questioned by the religious leaders. But there are fears that their pleas for stricter enforcement of Sharia law may result in censorship.
Pakistan’s religious political parties maintain close ties with the Taliban movement. The parties, which have their roots in the religious schools of north-west Pakistan, helped the Taliban during their rise to power and are currently taking advantage of the success enjoyed by the masters of Kabul. In return, they vaunt the advantages of the system in force in Afghanistan, especially in their newsletters.
On several occasions, the Pakistani religious movements have urged their supporters to attack journalists. In October 1996 members of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI, a fundamentalist party) raided the premises of the daily Ummat and burned copies of the newspaper containing articles criticising the Taliban. In December 1996, Fakhr Alam, correspondent of the newspaper The Muslim in Peshawar, was the target of a murder attempt. His attackers ransacked and then set fire to the daily offices. The Muslim had published a cartoon of the JUI leader dancing with both Afghan and Pakistani actresses. Fakhr Alam managed to identify one of the attackers as a leader of the JUI student wing, who was later arrested. Under pressure from the JUI, however, he was released after six days in custody. No-one was sentenced by the Pakistani courts in connection with the attempted murder. In September 1998 Saeed Iqbal Hashmi, correspondent of the daily Mashriq in Peshawar, was sentenced to death in a fatwa issued by religious leaders close to the JUI. The reporter decided to go into hiding when JUI activists demonstrated outside the newspaper offices. On 17 December 1998 two armed men went to his parents’ home to murder him. “The religious leaders accused me of being Jewish and of belonging to a Jewish lobby hostile to the Taliban’s interests”, he recalled. “I’ve never seen a Jew in my life.” In fact, the leaders were angry about one of his reports, about some sexual abuse of young boys at Quranic schools. As the Pakistani authorities were unable to ensure his safety, Saeed Hashmi decided to go into exile in Europe in January 1999.
Pakistani editorial writers have expressed concern about the “talibanisation” of the Peshawar region. Ismail Khan wrote recently in The News International: “The idea of the talibanisation of North-West Frontier Province may still seem a bit far-fetched, but reality is staring us in the face. Should we close our eyes and behave like ostriches? The time has come for us to take a firm stand.” An editorial writer with the Frontier Post added: “These self-proclaimed guardians of the nation’s morality ought to know that the population is not willing to accept their spiritual guides.”
Conclusion and recommendations
Afghanistan today is one of the countries where absolutely no press freedom exists. The Taliban have extended and developed the policy of their predecessors, both the communists and the mujahideen. They totally control all means of communication and – like nowhere else in the world – they have banned pictures. This attitude deprives the Afghan people, scarred by more than 20 years of civil war, of seeing what their country and the world outside look like. This phobia of representing humanity and nature explains the Taliban militiamen’s relentless attacks on foreign journalists, cameramen and photographers seeking a visual record of a country that seems to have been thrust back into the middle ages. It is to be hoped that the Taliban’s determination to be recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate power in Afghanistan will force them to cancel at least some of their restrictions on freedom of speech.
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the leaders of the Taliban movement:
… to recognise freedom of speech as a basic right of all Afghan people,
… to lift the ban on photographs and television,
… to end the restrictions imposed on foreign journalists working in Afghanistan.
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the Pakistani government:
… to provide protection for Pakistani and Afghan journalists who request it,
… to ensure respect for Pakistani laws on the press throughout the country,
… to sign and ratify, as soon as possible, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 19 of which guarantees freedom of expression.
Reporters Sans Frontières calls on the international community:
… to make respect for freedom of speech a condition of recognising the Taliban government,
… to support initiatives from Afghan journalists living in exile in favour of diversity of information,
… to intervene with representatives of the Taliban movement in order to guarantee the safety of foreign journalists working in Afghanistan.
