Afghan TV Station Clashes with Prosecutor

“We are worried because the fundamentalists, the mujahedin, are the majority in the parliament,” said Samander. “They do not want freedom of the press, and they do not want the press to publish anything negative about their activities, about what they did in the past and are still doing. They just want the press to be under their control.”Samander said that with journalists under attack in parliament, in the government, and, increasingly, from the revived Taleban, media outlets are beginning to seek protection elsewhere - leading to bias.“I am worried about journalism in Afghanistan,” he said. “Most publications and media organisations are now starting to work for specific sides. They are losing their objectivity, and if things continue this way Afghanistan’s media will lose the trust of the people and of the international community.”Journalists face a growing array of problems, he said, foremost among them interference from armed groups.“Everywhere is controlled by the gun,” said Samander. “But the government’s reaction to journalists is also very bad. They do not know what journalists are – for them, journalists are spies.”