By Sally Hodgson
Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Embassy Kabul

Kabul - Local and international journalists, Afghan officials, representatives from non-governmental organizations and foreign diplomats attended a seminar on journalism and reconstruction to mark the annual World Press Freedom Day (May 3) in Afghanistan. The event was held at the newly built Afghan Media and Culture Center in Kabul, which is operated by the non-governmental organization AINA.

Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Information and Culture, Abdul Hamid Mubarez, summarized the history of the Afghan media and attempts to bring about press freedom in Afghanistan in 1929 and 1964, which he said failed. He said the Ministry of Information and Culture recognizes the need for a free and robust media, he said, and acknowledges that both privately owned and government-run media can contribute to the development of democracy in Afghanistan.

The media can also contribute to the education and political conscience of the Afghan people and help defend their rights, Mubarez said. He expressed the hope that Afghan journalists and publishers now outside the country would return home to help rebuild the country.

His statement that the Ministry supports a robust and free press was challenged by some journalists attending the seminar, who complained that the government has imposed censorship on articles or publications it judges to be a threat.

The Kabul representative for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, Rohan Jayasekera, said that while some problems remain, the Interim Authority's new press law, passed in February, is a fair attempt to create an independent media, and that compared to the situation of free expression in some countries bordering Afghanistan, the new Afghan press law is "a model of virtue." He also said the new law is indicative of the government's commitment to free expression and a free media.

Jayasekera also recommended that the Interim Authority establish a set of guidelines to better define the press regulations and give journalists the right to appeal government decisions.

Several Afghan participants in the seminar, including Fakria, a woman journalist for Ruz women's magazine and TV Afghanistan, and Professor Wafa, a journalism professor at Kabul University, expressed the hope that Afghans will use their newfound freedom of expression to help establish democracy in the country.

An estimated 100 newspapers - 35 of them government-run and most of them weeklies - are now being published in Afghanistan. The government still controls radio, television and the country's official wire service, Baktar news agency. Under the Taliban, who were ousted from power in November 2001, there were few newspapers (all of them government-controlled), television was banned, and women were prohibited from working outside the home, in journalism or other professions.

At another event coinciding with Press Freedom Day in Afghanistan, U.S. Charge' d'Affaires David S. Sedney and Afghanistan's Minister of Information and Culture, Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, signed a letter of intent to construct two high-powered, medium-wave transmitters in Kabul. The transmitters, provided by the U.S. Government's International Broadcasting Bureau, are to be used by Radio Afghanistan, and by U.S. government-funded broadcasting entities, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Afghanistan and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to extend their broadcasting capability in the region.