Thursday
Jun222006
Afghan security orders journalists to report "more good news"
Hossam el-Hamalawy
This is just pathetic…
The best Karzai's government could come up with--in response to Taliban’s mounting attacks on NATO, local government troops as well as civilians, since spring of this year--is sending Afghani intelligence agents to intimidate Kabul’s press corps into reporting “more good news.� Here are excerpts of Newsday report by James Rupert:
Afghanistan orders journalists to report more good news
KABUL, Afghanistan — The war against the Taliban has gone badly these last months, but Afghanistan's national intelligence agency has devised a secret plan to reverse the tide of bad news.
In a coordinated action this week, the intelligence men drove up to TV stations and newspapers in SUVs and dropped off an unsigned letter ordering journalists to report more favorable news about the government. In particular, the letter said, they should avoid "materials which deteriorate people's morale and cause disappointment to them."
The men from the National Security Directorate would not give their names, and to better ensure secrecy, the letter instructed journalists that "publishing or copying this document is unauthorized."
Immediately, of course, it was Afghanistan's top story: The government was imposing censorship, and press groups were protesting in outrage. By Monday night, the fire reached China, where President Hamid Karzai is traveling. (Full story)
The best Karzai's government could come up with--in response to Taliban’s mounting attacks on NATO, local government troops as well as civilians, since spring of this year--is sending Afghani intelligence agents to intimidate Kabul’s press corps into reporting “more good news.� Here are excerpts of Newsday report by James Rupert:
Afghanistan orders journalists to report more good news
KABUL, Afghanistan — The war against the Taliban has gone badly these last months, but Afghanistan's national intelligence agency has devised a secret plan to reverse the tide of bad news.
In a coordinated action this week, the intelligence men drove up to TV stations and newspapers in SUVs and dropped off an unsigned letter ordering journalists to report more favorable news about the government. In particular, the letter said, they should avoid "materials which deteriorate people's morale and cause disappointment to them."
The men from the National Security Directorate would not give their names, and to better ensure secrecy, the letter instructed journalists that "publishing or copying this document is unauthorized."
Immediately, of course, it was Afghanistan's top story: The government was imposing censorship, and press groups were protesting in outrage. By Monday night, the fire reached China, where President Hamid Karzai is traveling. (Full story)
Reader Comments (3)
I posted on this earlier over at http://www.americanfootprints.com" rel="nofollow">American Footprints. There's some dispute over whether these are actual "orders," with Karzai's office strongly denying it, though that doesn't improve the situation that much.
By the way, have you checked in on the Gulf lately? There's interesting stuff happening in Kuwait, and a little in Bahrain, as well. (Sorry to comment off topic, but I don't have your e-mail and wanted to call this to your attention.)
I fondly remember such fumble handed attempts to improve the press coverage here from the Cairo Times and Cairo magazine days. Fielding a call from the Press Center was actually a not unpleasant way to take a break from editing or whatever other tail chasing we were doing at the time.
The best one was when the Ministryt of Information made a sly offer to buy 1,000 copies - actually I can't remember the number, maybe it was only 500 - of the CT issue in which we covered the riot at the Mohamed Mounir / World Cup 2010 incident.
For some reason they didn't follow up after they saw the story...