Afghan journalism

For many Afghans, September 9, 2001 is a date to remember. It was on this day that suspected al Qaeda terrorists carried out an attack on one of Afghanistan's best-known resistance fighters, Ahmad Shah Massoud. As the strategic leader of the Northern Alliance, Massoud defended the only part of the country which had not fallen into Taliban hands.

Fahim Dashty was one of the men to get caught up in the attack, and 10 years later, he still wonders how he came to survive. Massoud, he explains, had been surrounded by a circle of people listening to him talk. Dashty and two journalists were among the group. Only, as it later became painfully apparent, they weren't really journalists, but terrorists.

"I was sitting behind them when the explosives went off in front of me," Dashty told Deutsche Welle.

The terrorists detonated the explosives using a camera, killing some in the group immediately. Among them was Ahmad Shah Massoud, the charismatic leader in the fight against the Taliban and Soviet occupation.

"I should have been the first to be hit," Dashty says. "I was just half a meter behind them, but Massoud and the others were two to three meters away."

Scarred for life

Dashty survived the attack, but his body was covered in burns. Although time healed the physical wounds, the death of Massoud left a big hole in his life. The two men came from the Panjshir Valley, the stronghold of resistance against the Russian occupiers. Even today, tank wreckage lies scattered along the valley.

"The red army launched seven air and ground attacks, but they never managed to take the whole valley, and that was because of him," Dashty said of his role model Massoud.

Dashty first tried to join Massoud's fight towards the end of his school years, but the leader sent him back to Kabul and told him to finish his education first. He did what he was told, and on graduating, he accompanied the mujahedeen and made a film about Massoud's influence.

In the early 1990s, the Massoud Party founded the Kabul Weekly newspaper, in which as Dashty recalls, much column space was given over to stories about "war, explosions and people who died in front of me."

Critical consequences

The paper was first closed during the Taliban era. But in 2002, with the help of money from abroad, Dashty relaunched it. From the first edition onwards, the editor-in-chief was critical of the Karzai government, which he says adheres too closely to the rules of Afghan tribal society and not enough to the principles of democracy. His critical tone didn't go unnoticed.

"One day, an important man from the government brought me a message that warned me I might be involved in a car accident," Dashty said.

The accident never came to pass, but the 2009 elections did, and they brought with them accusations of widespread fraud. Kabul Weekly was forthcoming in its criticism, and this time it had real repercussions.

"Some businesses that supported Karzai's campaign advertised with us. When they saw how critical our reporting was, they cancelled their contracts," Dashty said.

Despite the loss of advertising revenue, the editor-in-chief managed to keep the paper alive until the start of this year, when a lack of independent funding convinced him that he had no choice but to turn out the lights.

"It's a personal loss, and I know it will be one of my biggest regrets," Dashty said in an editorial announcing his decision. "I can confidently say that this paper is one of the few independent media outlets in the country. We have never accepted editorial instructions from any agency, group or entity."

An unfinished war is not an option

Although he sees himself as a victim of a neo-liberal market economy, he said he believes in the West's mission in Afghanistan.

"It is the first time in our 5,000 year history that the Afghan people have accepted a foreign presence on their territory," he said.

All the same, he is skeptical about the future. He doesn't believe the Taliban will enter into any serious negotiations, and he is also not convinced that pulling NATO troops out by 2014 would be a wise thing to do.

"We Afghans don't pay a very high price, because we don't have much to lose apart from a couple of schools, hospitals and lives," he said. "But if this war is not finished successfully, you will have to fight it tomorrow in Berlin, Paris, London, Madrid and America."

Author: Martin Gerner / tkw
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn