Introduction
The story of Afghanistan is not less than a tragic saga. If hell could exist in this world, it did exist in Afghanistan for over 30 years. From late 1970s onwards, every regime in Afghanistan whitewashed the face of the previous regime in brutality, war crimes and suppression of fundamental rights of citizens, freedom of expression and publication being one of them. The worst came with the coming to power of Taliban in 1996.
The current Afghan government and its international supporters are not wrong in taking pride in the post Taliban press freedom in Afghanistan. It indeed is impressive. Yet, nine years after the fall of Taliban, journalists continue to be deprived of a safe space for professional performance. The list of the powerful actors that continue to target freedom of press is on an increase; drug dealers, war lords, and religious fundamentalists leave no stone unturned in suppressing journalism.
This paper is a search into Afghanistan’s new born journalism for traces of investigative journalism. In an attempt to put things into context and to provide the reader with realistic background, the paper explores various layers of history of journalism in the country and conducts a brief review of the media landscape within and through which the journalist fraternity of today operates. Based on this review of past and present, the paper concludes with remarks on the future of journalism and in particular investigative journalism in Afghanistan.
Historical Background
2011 marks the 90th anniversary of the profession of journalism in Afghanistan. The first bi-weekly news paper Siraj-ul-Akhbaar was published for the first time in October 1911 under the editorship of Mahmood Tarzi who is considered to be the Father of Afghan Journalism.[1] He also published Siraj-ul-Atfal, the first publication aimed at a younger audience. As an advocate of women’s rights, he helped his daughter Soraya run a publication for women called Arshad-el-Niswan, when she became the Queen after marrying King Amanullah Khan.[2]
Initially the business of print and publication was limited to government offices and ministries. King Amanullah Khan not only married Mahmood Tarzi’s daughter, but also inherited his bi-weekly. He changed Siraj-ul-Akhbaar to Aman-i-Afghan meaning Afghan Peace in January 1919, which was to serve as a government publication only. The only other journals that appeared at this time belonged to government ministries.
The Constitution of 1923 inspired by the modernizing decrees of Kamal Ataturk of Turkey was promulgated by King Ammanullah Khan.[3] This constitution took a number of baby steps towards democratization. For instance, its Article 11 protected the right of publication and press of Afghan citizens. Though this Article, at least on paper, protected more than mere government owned press, journals continued to be initiated, administered and controlled by government ministries.[4]
With Daud Khan becoming Prime Minister in 1953, a series of progressive reforms were restarted. Besides challenging the isolating traditional Purdah System, which blocked women participation,[5] he held the Constitutional Loya Jirga of 1964. The practice of holding Loya Jirga was nothing new. What made it different was Daud Khan’s creative use of media, an act of no precedence in Afghan history. This rendered the Loya Jirga of 1964 to be a species of a different nature. It was a mutation into a modern forum for discussion and debate with absolute inclusive participation given to representatives from all walks of life, sexes, ethnic groups, ages, professions and minorities as opposed to past pattern of male elder participation only. To ensure active participation of delegates who could neither read nor write, Radio Afghanistan was used as a medium for introducing and explaining the articles of the proposed constitution.[6]
The fact that the time period from 1963 to 1973 is known as the era of experimentation with democracy makes a lot of sense. The 1964 Constitution brought a number of revolutionary changes such as formation of political parties, placing law above religion in Article 69, and almost fully elected parliament with the exception of 1/3 of the upper house of the parliament to be appointed by the King. Above all, it underlined the Article on freedom of expression once again. This act of emphasis on freedom of expression served as the basis for the Press Law of 1965 which opened the doors to the establishment of political parties and news papers other than those owned by the government.[7] The first color television broadcasting appeared in 1978.[8]
Afghan society was opening up, and though the credit of initiating democratic reforms goes to King Amanullah Khan, it was Daud Khan who allowed political opposition to have means of expressing their views. The piecemeal introduction of Afghan society to the democratic values of freedom of expression is evident from this experience, which should have been expected to have led to a more durable form of democratic governance in the country, but it didn’t. The challenge was that the Loya Jirga as well as the Constitution, both were the consequences of a movement led by a minority of educated Afghans, who only thought that they represented vast majority of the population, and perhaps didn’t in reality. Besides, it is very true that every action has a reaction and democratic reform may produce counter action by threatening certain forces in society. Freedom of expression and association for the political opposition was not happy news for all elements on power.
No matter how short a lifetime this era had, it led to the birth of political activism in Afghanistan in an unprecedented way. The establishment of the Organization of Progressive Youth and their publication Shola-e-Jawed (The Eternal Flame) in 1965 was followed by the establishment of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) in the same year.
PDPA came to power through a coup on 27 April 1978 and stayed in power after Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. With their coming to power, civil war started in Afghanistan, and it took its toll on freedom of press as one of the victims. Besides, PDPA was a most dependent force on the Soviet Union, so much that internal documents of Afghanistan Liberation Organization, a radical Maoist group notes that PDPA’s strong leaning towards the Soviet Union was something so obvious that had become a joke in left circles in Afghanistan; “PDPA members keep their umbrellas ready in Kabul when it rains in Moscow.”[9] Based on the KGB model, KHAD of Afghanistan started functioning. KHAD acted arbitrarily, and targeted whoever that they thought was against the regime. Journalists continued to be targets, of not only Soviet backed regime, but also of Mujahideen, who by now controlled rural areas of Afghanistan. In search of news, journalists often ended up sandwiched between two sides to the civil war, where every side was suspicious of them as spies of the other. It was indeed Afghanistan’s era of McCarthyism.
Internal divide and factionism characterized PDPA, where the Khalq and Parcham factions continued to remain hostile towards each other, a hostility that was not only intensely reflected in the regime structure, its cabinet and the military leadership, but also in their publications.[10] Journalists had no other choice but to be political devotees and follow either Mujahideen or PDPA’s internally divided factions. Professionalism was being eroded and politicized practice of journalism was becoming the norm of the day.
From 1979 to 2001, Afghanistan’s history of journalism took a new turn. Resistance war, civil war and then Taliban rule destroyed whatever Afghanistan had achieved in the past couple of years in terms of progress in journalism; Taliban banned television as morally wrong, called it the “box of evil” and destroyed television sets, records and the offices of the Afghanistan National Radio-Television. The punishment for being caught with a TV set was imprisonment or flogging. Print outlets were ordered to not publish commentary, photos or readers’ letters. Only radio channels that belonged to the Taliban continued to function, and Taliban owned English newspaper The Islamic Emirate was launched in 2000 as means to counter information produced by the "enemies of Islam."[11] Death was all over Afghanistan, in particular in the lives of journalists and journalism.
Reporting continued however, perhaps not by journalists, but by remnants of the left movement of Afghanistan. Members of organizations such as the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan RAWA, with no evident history of reporting, let alone investigative reporting, risked their lives to collect and share the news of Afghanistan with the rest of the world. It was through their heroic acts of using hidden cameras and taping interviews of victims during the 1992-1996 civil wars, and then during the Taliban rule of 1996-2001 that the western world got a picture of what was going on in Afghanistan.[12] This was especially important because while the Taliban era did attract some world attention, during the Jehadi civil war of 1992-1996 nobody knew if there was a country named Afghanistan.[13] Their periodical Payam-e-Zan (Message of Woman) devoted half of its content to reports received from Afghanistan under the fundamentalism rule in an age when no other such reports were coming from Afghanistan and no one could dare report against warlords. The process of collecting reports not only included travel to dangerous areas and taking risks to interview victims or their families and neighbors, but also “smuggling” foreign journalists, mostly female, under a Burqa as the equipment and technical abilities that RAWA members had could not capture quality images;[14] the world needed more than just words, the world needed images as well.
Afghanistan Reborn: Post 9/11 Media Landscape and its Challenges
Not that the credit for this new birth goes to Al-Qaida for the 9/11 events, or to the US/NATO forces for bombarding Afghanistan following those events, but Afghanistan of today, in whatever shape that it is in, is a new born -and like any new born- with a hope for future. And if journalism cannot flourish in Afghanistan of today, it may never do. The certainty in this statement comes from the fact that the Constitution of 2004 is the best form that democracy has taken in Afghanistan ever. For instance, Article 34 and Article 50 of the Constitution states:
“Freedom of expression is inviolable. Every Afghan has the right to express his thought through speech, writing, or illustration or other means, by observing the provisions stated in this Constitution. Every Afghan has the right to print or publish topics without prior submission to the state authorities in accordance with the law.”
“The citizens of Afghanistan have the right of access to the information from the government offices in accordance with the provisions of law. This rights has no limits, unless violation of the rights of the others.”
As a consequence of this unseen space, media experienced explosive growth in post-Taliban Afghanistan, though quality has not always kept pace with quantity. I failed in acquiring exact figures from the Ministry of Information and Culture despite repeated attempts, but estimates suggest that currently, there are over 50 television channels, over 150 national and local radio channels and over 300 print outlets in Afghanistan.[15] Owing to the low literacy rates in Afghanistan, lack of access to electricity in most parts of the country and the extremely low purchasing power of expensive electronics such as TV, radio remains to be the popular most medium for flow of information.
The numbers depict an impressive picture. However, what determines the true spirit of democracy is first the degree by which Constitution on paper is implemented and enforced in practice, and secondly the sustainability of those values in the long term. The initial years following the Bonn Agreement of December 2011, witnessed an unprecedented media boom in Afghanistan. The space was so open for criticizing government or political parties or even past war criminals that comparisons were drawn between freedom of press in Afghanistan and most developed countries.[16]
But what comes fast goes fast as well. The initial freedom of press was like a big bubble that had to lose volume with passage of time. Though the ranking given by the Reporters without Borders placed media environment in Afghanistan as 156/173 in 2008 and 147/178 in 2010,[17] Afghanistan of 1960s and 70s was centuries ahead of where we were in 1990s and even where we are today. Likewise, press freedom of 2002-2004 was much better than 2011. [18] It seems that this repeated backward trend that Afghanistan follows is here to stay. And therefore, despite the fact that the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the right to information, journalists are attacked, bloggers are targeted, imprisoned and prosecuted for their expression of opinion or mere publication of opinion of someone else. In one instance, on January 16, 2006 a women’s rights activist and writer was officially called in by the Ministry of Information and Culture for investigation about a report that she had published in her weekly Women’s World about the trip of the Kabul Chief Commissioner of Police to London. She was released of “charges” only when she agreed to admit that she had taken the report from another website.[19] In another instance, Ministry of Information and Culture issued strict directives to all TV, radio and print outlets to mourn the death of King Zahir Shah by preparing and presenting programs only in praise and not in criticism of his 40 years dictatorial rule from 1933-1973.[20]
Life is a dilemma for Journalists in Afghanistan. On one hand they are competing with international journalists, who are at an altogether different level of technical abilities, access and equipment. And on the other hand they are caught between the government and Taliban elements. Following the 1980s model, they are kidnapped, harassed and fatally harmed by both sides to the conflict.[21] To add to this dilemma is the number of languages they have to operate in. Though some journalists believe that having two official languages is no barrier to how journalists operate,[22] some others consider it a serious hurdle in the flow of information.[23] This becomes an issue of significance especially when journalists have to operate in the third language of English as well.
Fears of prosecution and the increased frequency of attacks on journalists have led to self-censorship exercised by journalists. The imprisonment of Parvez Kambakhsh, to the death threats received by many such as Kamran Mir Hazar has not been without risks to their lives. Since the fall of Taliban, 24 journalists have been killed in mysterious ways in Afghanistan.[24] Some of the journalists and bloggers have been victims of penalties that are still enforced for claimed defamation of individuals or publication of material contrary to the principles of Islam.
In addition, the Code of Ethics of Press requires journalists to function while “considering national interest in the light of enforced laws and regulations.” Though the last article of this code specifies that the implementation of this code is voluntary and at no conditions the state must interfere in it, yet, the Press Law in its Article 2, Para 6 restricts journalists to the implementation of those norms. Such articles render journalists accountable to the government and in particular the Ministry of Information and Culture. In the midst of so much top-down accountability, the most required and the most important form of accountability -bottom-up accountability- is missing.[25] It is unbelievably amazing though, that despite lack of downward accountability, an average Afghan trusts media.[26]
Political use of media continues on its past legacy and divides media into government owned, private and politically partisan outlets. Years of war, unaccounted flow of financial resources to religious political parties during the anti-Soviet resistance war, and today’s corruption has empowered warlords, and politicians to have their own TV and Radio channels as well as press dailies and weeklies. Other than a few independent media outlets, this widespread environment of political partisanship means that a majority of journalists have no other choice but to succumb to political authority and continue to be partisan to a particular political person or party. Other than a few major private media groups, the inspiration behind producing news is mostly political, which leads to self-censorship, as well as less attention being paid to the capacity building of journalists through trainings or provision of technical equipments.
The political partisanship of media is not only affecting journalists but also artists. Shekib Mosadeq is a young Afghan singer and musician who decided to defy the norm of the day. This resulted in his work being rejected by every single media outlet. His music and lyrics reflected a more real picture of the lives of Afghan children and poor families that have to sell their children to be able to survive, widows who end up becoming prostitutes to be able to feed themselves and their children, and farmers and villagers who lose their entire life with a bomb that targets someone else, but falls on their home. Though international media reflects these realities, the fact that a young Afghan attempted at reflecting them through song and poetry was rightly thought by the government to be very strong, perhaps too strong to be allowed to happen.[27] Life was made a hell for him and finally when an attempt was made at kidnapping his only daughter, he left the country for Europe.[28]
The challenge of independence is not just a consequence of Afghan political players’ ability to recruit journalists. Neighboring countries such as Iran, Pakistan, India, Turkey, and Central Asian Republics have picked and continue to support their own favorites among Afghan media outlets. And as the saying goes, the hand that gives, rules: journalism is rarely neutral in its coverage and analysis of news. Another player in this war of media partisanship is the international community and donor agencies. Though, their intentions for extending support to the journalist fraternity is more directed towards capacity building and institutionalization of international norms of journalistic ethics than political partisanships.
However, despite political and ethno-religious inclinations of most media outlets and affiliated journalists, Afghan media remains to be nationalistic. They may criticize each other or the government, side with this or that ethnic or religious sect or become tools in the hands of this or that politician, when it comes to Afghanistan versus the rest of the world, they stand by their country, at least in words. [29]
Afghanistan is yet to enter the age of social media revolution despite eye catching progress in certain fields. For instance, Afghanistan went from literally zero communication network coverage to over 80% coverage by mid 2010.[30] The fact that one in every 2 persons has a phone that can connect to any part of the world adds an amazing value to the speed and flow of information among people. Internet access is limited to less than 5% of the population, and though this 5% has a 100% youth membership, it renders social media less relevant for now at least. This fact, while on one hand is good news for press publications and radio, on the other hand means that news gets to people at a slower rate, resulting in rather late reactions. The fact that the news of burning Quran by the Florida Pastor reached average Afghans four days after it had happened and only through Karzai’s condemnation, is a proof of this.[31] Being late in knowing what happened means being late in life, and therefore lagging behind forever. After all, the difference between a teacher and a student is only the time that each take in knowing something. Social media in the developed world is drastically decreasing this difference in time, but Afghanistan is not yet there.
News readership in Afghanistan is affected by a number of other factors besides literacy rates, access to sources of information on the internet or through television. One of these factors is the motivation behind a thirst for news. During the anti-Soviet war, civil war and the Taliban era, the people of Afghanistan had to follow news out of necessity; they had to know what is going to happen and when, as means for survival. Now (thanks God) this is no more the situation. Afghans no longer have to follow news out of necessity. However, for some groups, such as women and teenagers, this absence of necessity to know has resulted in absolute lack of interest in news.[32] This is the reason that drives media channels to combine news and entertainment and avoid solely news focused channels. Also, this is one of the reasons for lack of independence of media outlets, as the possibility of depending on self-generated revenues is close to nil, which leads to dependence of media outlets on Afghan, regional or international sources.
Afghanistan’s most popular TV and radio channels are owned by the Moby Media Group led by Saad Mohseni. TOLO TV and Radio Arman are not only creative with entertainment, but also very capable producers of political humor. Zang-e-Khatar (Alarm of Danger) is one of the most widely attended shows that criticize corrupt politicians and government officials, as well as raise concerns over Afghan refugee issues in Pakistan and Iran. The complexities involved in the development sector are also increasingly being criticized through well prepared programs. They laughter in the short term, but make people think about what is really going on in the country on a more long term basis. One such clip that has been broadcasted several times on television and radio channels and is circulating on Youtube and Facebook is a clip about the most ignored issue of translation of government documents, and day to day conversations, that take its toll on financial and human resources devoted to Afghanistan.[33]
Journalists in Afghanistan are living and breathing in a world full of challenges and dangers that affect their professional and personal lives. The fact that they continue to grow, to expand, and to show interest in learning and improving, despite these challenges, is a sign of resilience and hope. But how dependable this resilience and hope can be and is it enough to secure the future of journalism and in particular investigative journalism in Afghanistan, is a question that we will try to answer in the following paragraphs.
Investigative JOURNALISM: Are We There Yet?
BBC’s renowned journalist Lyse Doucet updated her Facebook status on April 9, 2011 with this statement: “...in the last week of a nearly month long journey across Afghanistan… some bright spots… some old dark ones… a changed and changing country…” While she was referring to the general situation in Afghanistan, I think, this statements is equally true of the present and future of journalism in Afghanistan. There is much to be happy about and take pride in, yet there is much to do and miles to go.
The process of writing this paper helped me encounter and realize certain facts that I had long ignored, perhaps intentionally, in an attempt to not lose optimism. Considering the increasing number of TV and radio channels, my understanding of the state of journalism in Afghanistan was unrealistic; I expected to write of the rosy picture of media development in Afghanistan and feel happy about it. The apparent progress tells the story of success. The light on the character of success in journalism is so bright that it is hard to see behind it. It was however, after I began receiving responses from journalists in Afghanistan through email, Skype, telephone or Facebook chat that I realized that the real picture was darker than I had imagined. The realities of Afghanistan had defeated my imagination yet again. I read, watched and listened to so much about social media and its power here that I thought Afghanistan will be the next Egypt. But for good or for worse, this does not seem to be the case, not as yet. These interviews also revealed another reality: lack of knowledge and understanding about investigative journalism even amongst journalists themselves. This was shocking, as only one out of six Afghan journalists interviewed knew what sets investigative journalism apart. It seems that insecurity and lack of practical protection mechanisms have not allowed journalism to prosper and open doors for investigative journalism to enter, and more importantly, to stay. It seems that we will have to wait longer for investigative journalism to hold its grasp in Afghanistan.[34]
However, and despite what we still lack, Afghanistan has come a long way in everything, including journalism, which is why the ongoing process of reconciling Taliban and other insurgent elements into the government is of great significance; on the results of this process, the future of Afghanistan in every field including journalism will depend. No doubt, there is a significant correlation if not causation between reconciliation and political stability. No doubt, the growth of investigative journalism depends on political stability and rule of law. But if reconciliation comes at the cost of losing the so far achieved results, whatever they are, then one should have the right to ask, is it really worth it?
The situation gets more difficult for women journalists as their options are even more restricted. To be able to simultaneously pursue a successful career in journalism as well as be a “good woman” is almost impossible. They’d have to let one go, or pretend that they have. To be able to succeed professionally, they have to sacrifice their family life, even their character. An active and successful female journalist must have given something to get there and the first thing that comes to the general mind is her dignity. Even if they decide to drive a car, which is a must if you want to be mobile and reach on time to capture news, they are harassed and belittled as immoral, too liberal, and without family values. Of course this situation is not limited to female journalists alone, but since journalism is a field of work where the results of your efforts eventually become public property, their lives are considered to be one too.[35] Reconciliation with a reactionary force like Taliban will mean multiplying this situation by thousands.
The future of investigative journalism in Afghanistan will depend on the ability and will of journalists as well as the space provided for them to function. For the ability to develop, education, technical training and equipments are necessary. For the space to be open and protect the right of a journalist to investigate under law and codes of ethics, political stability, security, rule of law and political will of the Afghan government are must. Progress in the face of what Afghanistan had become as a result of over three decades of war is overwhelming. Behind this progress stands a strong will of the journalist fraternity, both inside and outside the country, the support and resilience of democratic forces and the backing of the international community. However, without a strong political will of the Afghan government, the sustainability of these achievements might be at risk. This might be investigative journalism’s only chance of existence and future growth and we must not waste it. The Afghan government must not waste it.
[1] The initial publication date of Siraj-ul-Akhbar is contested. Some believe that the first newspaper, Siraj-ul-Akhbar was published on January 11, 1906 not by Tarzi, but by Abd al-Rauf as editor. It stopped with the first issue and Tarzi revived it in 1911.
[2] Yama Atta and Hashmat Haidari, An Afghan Intellect: Mahmoud Tarzi , Afghan Magazine, accessed April 10, 2011, http://www.afghanmagazine.com/articles/tarzi.html
[3] Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History, (London: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2003), 20.
[4] A. Saikal, R. Farhadi and K Nouzahanov, Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival, (New York: I.B.Tauris, 2006), cited on Wikipedia, last modified April 8, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Afghanistan#cite_note-pr-5.
[5] Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History, (London: I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2003), 34.
[6] Rasanayagam, 38.
[7] Bhabani Send Gupta, Afghanistan, Politics, Economy and Society: Revolution, Resistance, Intervention, (Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 1986), 13.
[8] Afghanistan, Press Reference, accessed on April 10, 2011, http://www.pressreference.com/A-Be/Afghanistan.html.
[9] Self translation of Internal-claimed to be educational-documents used by Afghanistan Liberation Organization in their political courses taught to young recruits; I have attended a couple of these courses, but I do not have them here with me, so I cannot cite the exact page numbers.
[10] Rasanayagam, 71.
[11]M. Y. Dartnell Insurgency Online: Web Activism and Global Conflict, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006), cited on Wikipedia, last modified April 8, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Afghanistan#cite_note-pr-5.
[12] Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, last modified November 16, 1996, accessed April 8, 2011, http://www.rawa.org/zarmeena.htm.
[13] Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, accessed April 8, 2011, http://www.rawa.org/farsi-re.htm, http://www.rawa.org/recent.htm, http://www.rawa.org/beating.htm, http://pz.rawa.org/extra/crimesbook.htm.
[14] Marina Mateen, personal interview with an ex-RAWA member, April 9, 2011.
[15] Sanjar Sohail, email interview with the owner and publisher of Kabul’s most popular daily 8AM, March 12, 2011.
[16] Mir Hussain Mahdavi, telephonic interview with Afghan author and journalist, March 30, 2011.
[17] Reporters without Borders, Press Freedom Index 2010, accessed March 30, 2011, http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html.
[18] Reporters without Borders, Press Freedom Index 2010, accessed March 30, 2011, http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2010,1034.html.
[19] Kabul Press, last modified January 16, 2006, accessed March 27, 2011, http://kabulpress.org/maghala_26jadye1385.htm.
[20] Kabul Press, last modified September 16, 2008, accessed March 19, 2011, http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article2261
[21] Kamran Mir Hazar, telephonic interview with Afghan author and journalist, March 29, 2011.
[22] Mohammad Wais Khettab, email interview with Afghan journalist, March 24, 2011.
[23] Sanjar Sohail, email interview with the owner and publisher of Kabul’s most popular daily 8AM, March 12, 2011.
[24] Kabul Press, last modified September 6, 2010, accessed March 19, 2011, http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article27348
[25] Kamran Mir Hazar, telephonic interview with Afghan author and journalist, March 29, 2011.
[26] Mohammad Wais Khettab, email interview with Afghan journalist, March 24, 2011.
[27] Kabul Press, last modified April 29, 2010, accessed March 19, 2011, http://kabulpress.org/my/spip.php?article8614.
[28] Nushin Arbabzadah, “Censorship drives Afghan talent into Exile”, Global Post, May 16, 2010, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/100511/afghanistan-culture-music-kabul-news.
[29] Mir Hussain Mahdavi, telephonic interview with Afghan author and journalist, March 30, 2011.
[30] Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Telecom Statistics, last modified June 2010, http://mcit.gov.af/en/Page/12
[31] Amir Shah, “Afghan Protest over Quran Burning leaves 9 Dead”, The News Tribune, April 1, 2011, http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/04/01/1608385/afghanistan-7-killed-in-protest.html.
[32] Mir Hussain Mahdavi, telephonic interview with Afghan author and journalist, March 30, 2011.
[33] “UN in Afghanistan: Lost in Translation and ‘Screwed’,” YouTube Video, 06:11, from a performance televised by Imroz TV on March 21, 2011, posted by “Afghan Funny Jokes,” April 6, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyWxGEAqoJ8&feature=channel_video_title.
[34] Farhad Peikar, email interview with Afghan journalist, March 23, 2011.
[35] Fariha Khorsand, telephonic interview with Afghan journalist, March 22, 2011.