mission-journal

With elections due on August 20, pressure is mounting on Afghan journalists, and it's coming from all sides. The International Federation of Journalists helped organize a meeting in Kabul last week to draw the fractious journalists' community together; there are four or five competing organizations, all vying for recognition, dominance, and funding. In March, the donor organizations to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan called on the groups to sort themselves out before they'll start sending money. In a release yesterday, the IFJ addressed both problems: attacks and abuse aimed at journalists as the elections approach and military activity increases; and the inability, so far, of journalists to organize themselves into a cohesive unit. 

I spent Sunday morning in Kabul catching up with Danish Karokhel, at left, director of Pajhwok Afghan News and (along with deputy Farida Nekzad) a 2008 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee. Pajhwok moved since the last time I was here, and with income from subscribers to its news service and grant money from NGOs, it seems stronger than ever. More than 120 staff members are now spread around the country, with new online efforts and an expanded photo service in the works. With a presidential election scheduled for August, Karokhel is in the middle of planning a training seminar on campaign coverage for his teams in Kabul and the provinces.

What is happening in Nicaragua when it comes to press freedom? A CPJ report found that President Daniel Ortega is waging a war against the media. It consists of smear campaigns, legal and economic pressures, verbal and physical attacks, and a rigorous information embargo against the critical and independent media.

Minutes after I woke up to get ready for the presentation of a CPJ report on press freedom conditions in Nicaragua, I turned on the TV. Nicaragua was shaken by the sudden death of Managua's mayor, Alexis Arguello, who was found at home with a gunshot wound to his chest. Arguello, who had won three world boxing titles for Nicaragua and was considered the greatest athlete in the country's history, committed suicide, according to several local press reports. While an autopsy is pending and authorities are investigating his death, on Wednesday the government declared three days of mourning. 

On March 2, 2006, Kenyan state agents conducted a commando-style midnight raid on the Standard Group, owner of an independent daily and KTN Television in the capital, Nairobi. The agents seized computers and tapes, vandalized a printing press, and burned roughly 20,000 copies of The Standard, Chief Executive Officer Tom Mshindi told me recently in Nairobi. On each anniversary since, the Standard Group calls for inquiries into the raid. Paul Muite, a former member of parliament from Kabete and a vocal critic of President Mwai Kibaki, made a public statement at the Standard Group's office on this year's anniversary--and believes that, as a result, he is now being followed. 

Nicaragua's press freedom conditions have seriously deteriorated in the last year, local journalists and free press advocates told Americas Senior Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría and me during a weeklong visit to Managua. We concluded our mission on Friday and will issue a report next month on the nation's press conditions.

There are few street names and no addresses in Managua, a famously disorganized city whose downtown was destroyed in a 1972 earthquake and never rebuilt.  To find a house, office, or government building you need directions which are only intelligible to locals. Here are couple of examples: