-
An Afghan policeman stands at the site of a blast in Kabul - Source: Reuters -
Related
Afghanistan promised to clarify new restrictions on news coverage of Taliban strikes, and hinted that it may row back from the most draconian measures, which had amounted to a total ban on filming during attacks.
The United States said it planned to raise the issue with Kabul,
a day after the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) spy
agency summoned journalists to its headquarters and threatened to
arrest anyone filming while strikes are under way.
President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Waheed Omer, said that the new
guidelines had not yet been drawn up, and promised they would not
amount to censorship.
"I would not call it restrictions. There is nothing even discussed
or conveyed to the media called restrictions on the media," he
said.
The goal would be to prevent insurgents from using live media
reports to get tactical information, and to keep journalists
themselves out of danger at the scene of violence, he said, without
elaborating on how those goals might be achieved.
"Live broadcast of the scene of the attacks has in the past been
useful to the enemy to give instructions to their people who are on
the scene. Through a mechanism, we want to ensure that does not
happen again. We are also blamed for not protecting the lives of
the journalists," Omer said.
The strict ban on news coverage of attacks initially unveiled on
Monday by the NDS had alarmed Afghan journalist groups, which said
it would deprive the public of vital security information.
Independent media and democracy
Ever-bolder Taliban fighters have staged several major
commando-style attacks during the past year in the capital and
other cities, most recently last Friday when suicide bombers struck
hotels and battled police in downtown Kabul for two hours.
Sixteen people were killed, including Indian government officials
and an Italian diplomat. Vivid images were broadcast worldwide as
combat was under way.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the US State Department will
be discussing the matter with Kabul.
"I understand that they are addressing it as a
government-to-government issue because, like I said, we do believe
that a strong, independent media is important to any democracy," he
told reporters.
Whitman said that to his knowledge, the US military was not
consulted about the planned policy change.
He also played down any impact on US news media embedded with
coalition forces who might capture a Taliban attack on
camera.
"I haven't seen anything that the US news media has been covering,
or the way in which the US news media has been covering our
military operations, or even our joint operations, that go to the
concerns as I understand it of the Afghan government," he
said.
NDS officials conveyed the new ban in one-on-one meetings with
journalists on Monday, including Reuters. All filming at the scene
of attacks would be banned until fighting was over and NDS gave
permission, NDS spokesman Saeed Ansari said.
Omer suggested that the rules were likely to be milder than the
blanket ban described by journalists who were briefed by NDS,
although he would not be more specific.
"I think I can ensure you that it's not the way it's been
interpreted. This is not an attempt to restrict the work of the
media," he said. Afghan officials, including from NDS and the
information ministry, would meet to help draw up the new rules,
which would be made public very soon, he said.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
