Dateline reporters free#
Afghanistan’s last and only free press flourished during the so-called “decade of democracy” from 1963 to 1973 when it ground to an abrupt halt with the overthrow of King Zahir Shah. This has been true in Afghanistan for at least a quarter of a century. While there is no explicit ban on independent journalism, state-owned publications and radio stations dominate the country’s media. The latter deny threatening journalists, although Taliban officials say privately that they oppose “independent” newspapers because these could become propaganda vehicles for the opposition. Several Peshawar-based Afghan journalists reported receiving threatening calls after writing critical articles about the Taliban.
A Peshawar-based Afghan woman journalist was reportedly jailed when she visited Afghanistan earlier this year, and two Pakistani reporters were detained on espionage charges after visiting opposition-held territories in northern Afghanistan. This is not to say that the Taliban are press freedom champions. In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, for example, a recent radio drama explored the racy topic of girls choosing their own husbands. In the provinces, however, local media seem to enjoy greater independence, according to local journalists. Bereft of music, Radio Kabul (now known as Radio Voice of Islamic Law) is heavily oriented towards religious topics. And there are no newsstands in Afghanistan: the papers are distributed mainly to government offices.īecause Afghanistan is largely an illiterate society, radio is the mass communication medium of choice. News is limited to official announcements, accounts of Taliban military victories, and anti-opposition propaganda. In line with the Islamic ban on human representation, their pages are free of pictures. “dailies” such as Anees (“Companion”) and Hewad (“Homeland”) are daily in name only: they run two to three times a week. Today, the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture estimates that there are more than a dozen state-owned newspapers around the country. But they have proved somewhat more tolerant of criticism than the warring factions that ruled Afghanistan until 1996. The former religious students who control most of Afghanistan today are no great believers in press freedom, of course. That’s also how Afghan journalists view the Taliban. Compared with the brutal, corrupt warlords they replaced, the fervently religious Taliban seemed a breath of fresh air. In a way, that’s how most Afghans felt when the Taliban militia swept to power three years ago. “If a man fears death, he will accept fever,” says an old Afghan proverb. Even so, Afghan journalism is showing signs of life. Even the HOUSTON dateline, however, felt exotic that night and early morning.The Taliban are hardly press freedom champions. I was really only a few steps from Mission Control.
“It simply felt that I had made it to the moon. “One dateline I like to think I deserved was TRANQUILITY BASE, July 21,” Mr. Wilford may be best known for having covered humanity’s first steps on the moon in 1969. In a long, distinguished and Pulitzer-winning career, Mr. I could have done the story from California, but couldn’t resist having a dateline JACKASS FLATS.” I was told tests would soon be conducted at Jackass Flats in Nevada. “I was in California, where I reported some research results. “The only time I went out of my way for a particular dateline was for a story on possible nuclear engines for interplanetary spacecraft,” Mr.
Dateline reporters how to#
“That became the dateline I was never sure how to spell.” “The mystery of the Loch Ness Monster took me to Scotland for a month of bylines from a lochside village named DRUMNADROCHIT,” John Noble Wilford said. One correspondent’s Kirkjubaejarklaustur is another’s Drumnadrochit.
But then a few days later I realized there was another town, close by, that I could have stopped at and used as the dateline: KIRKJUBAEJARKLAUSTUR. “I couldn’t get to the actual eruption site, so I datelined it from the closest place I visited, SKAFTAFELL,” he said. He had slightly less luck covering the Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland. Fountain learned the roller coaster was in a town called SANTA CLAUS, the deal was sealed. “One of our best ones is just a couple of hours from here, in Indiana,” the coaster maker said, and offered him the chance to come learn about its design - and ride it - in person. While thinking about doing an article on roller-coaster design, Henry Fountain reached out by phone to a manufacturer in Cincinnati. “For me it has to be CRAPSTONE, whose existence inspired me to write a whole story about rude British place names, and what it’s like to live in a place when the name is inherently embarrassing,” Sarah Lyall said.
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