[R-G] Taliban show new media savvy in Afghanistan

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 Agence France Presse
All Rights Reserved
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Agence France Presse -- English

August 19, 2007 Sunday 2:50 AM GMT

LENGTH: 745 words

HEADLINE: Taliban show new media savvy in Afghanistan

BYLINE: Bronwen Roberts

DATELINE: KABUL, Aug 19 2007

BODY:


When two Taliban addressed journalists outside the venue of talks to  
free South Korean hostages last week, it was effectively the  
militia's first press conference in Afghanistan five years.

The images shot around the world, showing members of an extremist  
group hunted by the US military standing on an Afghan street talking  
to journalists.

Officials in Ghazni were so angry they later banned photographers and  
reporters from leaving their hotels, threatening them with detention.

Even without this brazen display, the militia has been able to  
command headlines with a sophisticated media campaign that some  
suspect is crafted by Al-Qaeda media experts.

Recent hostage dramas have provided fertile ground for the Taliban to  
deploy their press campaign.

For instance, videos of miserable-looking South Korean hostages and a  
separate German captive were released to international television  
networks.

Then the Taliban organised interviews with one of the South Koreans  
and the German. Their pleas for help stirred public emotion and  
helped the Taliban pressure the governments of the two countries to  
act on their demands.

Regular calls to journalists from secret locations, text messages to  
claim attacks on international troops and DVDs showing acts of  
"jihad," or holy war, such as the murder of alleged spies, are now  
part of the Taliban's media arsenal.

Ironically, this new-found expertise comes from a movement that  
banned television, photographs, video and the Internet during its  
five years in government.

"The Taliban are now effectively plugged into media following the  
example of Al-Qaeda, which has been using the media as tools to  
publicise their actions," said Hameed Gul, ex-chief of Pakistan's  
Inter Services Intelligence that helped the Taliban to power.

They are "now reaching out to international TV channels and news  
agencies to debunk the US and its allies claiming defeat of the  
militia in Afghanistan," he told AFP.

And it is working, he said.

"It is because of the success of the Taliban's media policy that  
people feel that the US is loosing its war in Afghanistan," Gul said.

In getting out their message, the Taliban lead the government in  
accessibility and speed, from day-to-day terror strikes as well as  
other more complicated and political issues.

Ahead of last week's Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, the  
Taliban sent journalists the message that "we are not terrorists"  
well before President Hamid Karzai's speech had hit inboxes saying  
they are.

"The Taliban are no longer the Taliban of five years ago," said  
Afghan journalist and parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai. "They have  
learned a lot."

The Afghan government's own weak media strategy was helping the  
Taliban, she said.

"It's very easy to access the Taliban, but when you try to contact a  
government spokesman, it's very hard to reach him. Either you find  
their phones off or they're not available," Barakzai said.

Kabul University political science professor Nasrullah Stanikzai  
believes the Taliban must have received help.

"This is the work of Al-Qaeda or it is possible that one of  
Afghanistan's neighbours are helping them," he said, referring to  
their speedy reactions and apparent ability to monitor events around  
the world, around the clock.

In a campaign seen to be more about winning "hearts and minds" than  
using military might to quell dissent, all the players in Afghanistan  
-- including the government and international military forces -- try  
to use the media to get out their message.

But in the case of the Taliban, "their 'entitlement' to media space  
is questioned by the fact that they are not a legitimate force," said  
journalist and media analyst Aunohita Mojumdar.

The government's annoyance at the Taliban's place in the media led to  
an attempt last year to issue "guidelines" to try to force Afghan  
media to stop reporting on the insurgents -- a move journalists ignored.

Facts "are at a premium in Afghanistan" with battle zones difficult  
to get to and the truth difficult to find.

So Taliban information, though fast to arrive, is often inaccurate,  
exaggerated or sometimes just plain false.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force acknowledges that it  
may lag behind the militants' in providing information about attacks  
and casualties.

But the force sometimes has to allow the Taliban to issue numbers and  
statistics "which are based in lies" while it tries to establish the  
facts, which can take time, spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Brenda  
Steele said.

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