Crackdown on Afghan Media as Elections Near

The closure of an Afghan daily -- after its editor was briefly jailed for alleged blasphemy -- is part of an ongoing campaign to subdue the media in the run-up to presidential elections in August, observers say.

Payman Daily announced it was closing down on February 8, following mounting pressure on staff, which appears to have been triggered by the January 11 publication of an article that the Ulema, or Council of Religious Clerics, deemed blasphemous.

In a statement, the newspaper blamed "forces who are against democracy and freedom of speech," among whom, it suggested, was President Hamed Karzai. The president, it said, was "overwhelmed by the critical mood of the paper and the kind of independent information it reflects."

The allegedly blasphemous story -- downloaded from an Afghan website, www.Khawaran.com, carried the predictions of an old Bulgarian woman, Baba Wanga, which cast doubt on all prophesies, including those of Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammad.

This, apparently, was what angered the mullahs, who issued a Fatwa against the paper, calling those behind the publication "apostates" and demanding harsh punishment of its staff. In Afghanistan "harsh punishment" is commonly understood to mean death.

Payman, for its part, claimed that the article was printed in error, and apologized repeatedly in subsequent issues of the paper.

This did not appease the Ulema, who also threatened the Afghan government, saying that failure to punish the alleged perpetrators could lead to a nationwide uprising.

On January 15, the government duly interrogated seven members of Payman's staff, releasing six of them after several hours. But the news editor, Nazari Paryani, remained in custody until January 20. His reprieve is only temporary, however. Officials in the judiciary say that the case against Paryani and the paper is still open.

"Our society cannot tolerate anti-Islamic propaganda," said Attorney General Eshaq Aloko. "This will have negative consequences in the future."

Following his release, Paryani spoke with the media, calling his detention "against all laws, as well as national and international principles."

He complained about the arrest and the conditions under which he was held.

"An official of the attorney general's office … entered our office with police and arrested me and six of my colleagues," he told reporters. "They said they came on orders of the president and the attorney general."

Paryani said he was held with common criminals, and interrogated twice during his time in jail.

"It was very humiliating for me, a journalist," he said.

Paryani's ordeal is the latest in a line of cases in which religion has been used as a tool with which to strike at journalists.

Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh has been in prison since October, 2007, on vague charges of "insulting Islam." His alleged crime also involves downloading an article from the internet and distributing it to his classmates at Balkh University. The offending material concerns women's rights under Islam; Kambakhsh denies the charge.

He was initially condemned to death; the appeals court commuted his sentence to 20 years in prison. His case is still pending before the supreme court.

Ghaws Zalmai, a prominent Afghan journalist, has been behind bars since November 2007. He has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, for publishing a vernacular version of the Koran which the Ulema found to be inaccurate. His appeal has been repeatedly delayed, most recently on February 8.

All three cases have been manufactured and prosecuted in violation of the laws of Afghanistan, say media experts.

"Nobody has the right to arrest a journalist directly," said Rahimullah Samander, head of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association, referring to latest affair. "The [Payman] case should have been referred to the media violations commission. This shows that the law was not considered."