[Nettime-bold] Re: British journalist arrested by taliban

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

I thought how it should be easy for women reporters to get in - I 
mean if all women are completely covered, then it should be easy 
to get in and out of the country as a woman. But the Seekers of 
Knowledge learned the lesson with the BBC crew, so now they are 
probably peeking under the 'burquas' , thus breaking their own silly 
laws.
ivo

Date sent:      	Mon, 1 Oct 2001 14:09:15 -0400
Send reply to:  	International Justice Watch Discussion List
             	<JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From:           	Steve Albert <stevealbert@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject:        	British journalist arrested by taliban
To:             	JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU

Reporters with Borders/RSF Reporters Sans Frontières

British journalist arrested by taliban

In a letter addressed to the Taliban Foreign Minister, Moulvi Wakil Ahmad
Motawakil, Reporters Without Borders (RSF-Reporters Sans Frontières)
protested against the arrest of journalist Yvonne Ridley of the British
Sunday Express newspaper. "The reporter was only exercising her right to
inform international public opinion about the situation inside Afghanistan",
said Robert Ménard, General Secretary of RSF. The organisation urged the
minister to ensure the release of the British journalist and her two guides.
"Arresting reporters who are only providing first hand accounts of the
situation of the Afghan people is not the best way to reassure international
critics," added M. Ménard.

According to information obtained by RSF, on 28 September 2001 the Taliban
militia arrested journalist Yvonne Ridley in Daur Buba district (near
Jalalabad, 15 kilometres from the Pakistani border). The journalist with two
"guides" of unknown nationality, was wearing a burqah, the Afghan attire and
veil imposed on women by the Taliban. According to the Afghan Islamic Press
agency that provided the information, the Taliban also seized a camera. The
authorities accused the journalist of having entered Afghanistan
"illegally". She allegedly had no passport with her. Yvonne Ridley is now
detained in Jalalabad.

The news editor of the tabloid Sunday Express, Jim Murray, contacted by RSF,
confirmed that Yvonne Ridley crossed the border on 26 September with two
guides, one of them a driver who claimed to know the area "very well". She
had not contacted the newspaper since arriving in Afghanistan, although she
had a mobile phone with her. Her newspaper described Yvonne Ridley, 41, as a
very experienced reporter who had covered several conflicts. She had been in
Pakistan for several days, with a colleague from the Daily Express, to cover
the situation in the country and at the border. Jim Murrray told RSF he had
no direct information about Yvonne Ridley's current situation.

Yvonne Ridley is the first foreign journalist to have been arrested by the
Taliban since the 11 September 2001. Hundreds of reporters are now in
Pakistan and some of them have been trying to enter Afghanistan. Last week,
a BBC crew, dressed as Afghan women, managed to get inside Afghanistan and
film in villages near the border.

In the report "The taliban and the media" published in September 2000, RSF
wrote: "In August 2000 the authorities introduced strict regulations to
cover the work of foreign reporters and special correspondents. On arrival
in Kabul, they are given a list of "21 points to be respected". The first is
to give a true account of "what is really happening in Afghanistan" and not
to "offend the people's feelings". Next comes a long litany of
recommendations which might amount to no more than bureaucratic harassment
in other countries but which testify to the Afghan authorities' distrust of
the foreign press and their determination to maintain strict control of
reporters on Afghan soil. A document published by the information and
culture department states that foreign journalists are not allowed to "go
into private houses", "interview an Afghan woman without the department's
permission" or "photograph or film people". Journalists are also supposed to
tell the department when they travel outside Kabul and to respect the
country's "no-go areas". (Š) No penalties for the infringement of these
regulations are specified in the documents issued by the authorities.


_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold