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Press in Afghanistan Showing Signs of Progress
Friday, May 3, 2002
(3:58 PM ET)
By Niko Price
Associated Press Writer

Rohan Jayasekera, the Kabul representative for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, cited one magazine whose application for a license was rejected because it listed religion among its topics of interest. Still, Hamid Mobarez, from the Ministry of Information and Culture, said there is no censorship. "Our journalists are all free. We don't censor. We don't control," he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- AP
With more than 100 newspapers and a new law decreeing freedom of the press, Afghanistan's news media have come a long way in the five months since the Taliban were driven from power.

But even as they celebrated World Press Freedom Day on Friday, journalists complained of threats and censorship from the interim government, and many wondered whether Afghanistan, where literacy is estimated as low as 20 percent, can sustain its mushrooming press.

Under Taliban rule, which ended late last year, there were only a few newspapers - all controlled by the government. The Taliban banned television and sent female journalists home.

"For five years, they weren't even allowed to listen to the radio," said Hamida Usman, deputy director of Malalai, a women's magazine. "Now everyone is thirsty to read a newspaper."

The government is publishing 35 newspapers, mostly weeklies, according to Abdul Hamid Mobarez, deputy minister of information and culture. He has received applications for 73 private newspapers, but conceded there might be more.

Alexandre Plichon, coordinator of the non-governmental Afghan Media and Culture Center, estimated Kabul alone has 140 newspapers - "too many," he said.
(More: The Nando Times News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan