CPJ urges Karzai to protect Afghan media
Dear President Karzai, The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about your government’s failure to push through proposed media reforms at a time when the Afghan press is growing increasingly restricted. As a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization of journalists committed to supporting our colleagues around the world, CPJ is troubled by our findings on Afghanistan, which suggest that media policy is increasingly aimed at hampering journalists.
Arrests made in Kabul hotel suicide bombing
New York, January 15, 2008—Afghan authorities swiftly arrested four suspects following the attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul yesterday, according to The Associated Press. The suicide blast took the lives of at least six people, including that of Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen, 38, a journalist from the Oslo daily newspaper Dagbladet.
Journalist faces death in Afghanistan
New York, January 14, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned by the detention and upcoming trial of Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province, northern Afghanistan. The 23-year-old journalism student and brother of prominent journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi will be tried in a religious Islamic court on charges of blasphemy, according to Rahimullah…
Two radio stations attacked
SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 Reported September 27, 2007 Milli Paygham (National Message) radio station Radio Istiqlal (Independence) radio station ATTACKED The two stations, both affiliates of Internews, a U.S.-based media training and advocacy group, were attacked at roughly the same time. Shortly after 12 a.m. September 24, a group of unknown gunmen attacked the Milli Paygham…
Taliban harass reporter
AUGUST 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 Mohammad Zahir Bahand, Salam Watandar, Reporter DETAINED, INTERROGATED, THREATENED Bahand was kidnapped by Taliban in the vicinity of the Pulisurkh area in Sayedabad district of Wardak province and was released after a few hours of questioning, according to Kabul-based radio station Salam Watandar’s manager Sanjar Qiam. Bahand was…
Canadian journalist wounded by roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan
New York, August 23, 2007—A Canadian journalist traveling with a military convoy in southern Afghanistan was injured Wednesday when the armored vehicle in which he was riding hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold. Two Canadian soldiers and an Afghan interpreter were killed by the explosion. Radio-Canada cameraman Charles Dubois sustained a…
Taliban fighters raid radio station
AUGUST 17, 2007 Posted August 20, 2007 Yawali Ghag radio station ATTACKED At around 2 a.m., a group of about 12 Taliban fighters attacked the office of the Yawali Ghag community radio station in Wardak province, just west of Kabul, according to local journalists. The fighters assaulted the station’s guard, bound him, and briefly held…
Taliban fighters raid radio station
AUGUST 12, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 Yawali Ghag radio station ATTACKED At around 2 a.m., a group of about 12 Taliban fighters attacked the office of the Yawali Ghag community radio station in Wardak province, just west of Kabul, according to local journalists. The fighters assaulted the station’s guard, bound him, and briefly held…