Afghans Sick of TV Horrors

Graphic footage of shattered body parts, bloodstained clothing and other horrors of war are regular fodder for television viewers across Afghanistan.



TV channels include footage of the latest carnage as part of their nightly news bulletins, but there’s growing controversy over whether gruesome imagery should be used in public information films aimed at deterring Afghans from joining the insurgency.



The films, aired by TV stations across the country, have been issued by government departments – but the ministry of information, which claims it has not been consulted about them, has been expressing concern over their content.



It has asked the ministries producing the broadcasts to discuss them with its staff before they’re distributed to the stations – and warned the latter that they will ban the films that are currently being shown unless they are toned down.



Din Mohammad Mubarez Rashedi, a senior official responsible for broadcasting at the information ministry, said the grisly content of the broadcasts has drawn many complaints from viewers. He told IWPR that images of mangled bodies were causing families psychological harm, violating the country’s new media law which prohibits the airing of such distressing footage.



But Zemarai Bashari, spokesman for the ministry of interior, one of the government departments producing the films, says the footage has been deliberately chosen to discourage anti-government activity and bolster support for the work of the security agencies – although he did concede that the scenes were troubling.



However, he insisted that the broadcasts were necessary to show people the consequences of extremist acts.



Rashedi said the ministry of information had been aware that other government departments had been producing the films, but had only now chosen to intervene because of growing concerns over their content.



He told IWPR that government departments often do their own media work without the involvement of officials from his ministry, but would be asked to consult them over such broadcasts in future.



“They should share their programmes with us so we can advise them,” he said.



Faheem Dashti, the spokesperson for Afghanistan Journalists’ Union and editor-in-chief of the English language Kabul Weekly, questioned the legality of the ministry of information’s intervention.



He said only the yet to be constituted Supreme Council of Media – comprising government representatives, parliamentarians, journalists’ associations, the human rights commission and civil rights groups – can decide what can or can’t be broadcast.



But some in the medical profession are backing the ministry of information’s call for government departments to exercise greater care over their use of distressing imagery in public information films.



They’ve expressed concern over the psychological effect such footage might have on a population that has endured more than two decades of war.



Dr Mohammad Nader Alami, who runs a psychiatric clinic in Mazar-e-Sharif, told IWPR, “Those with problems such as depression and anxiety are severely affected by these kinds of scenes. Many of those who have watched it say they have nightmares.”



Asadullah, a resident of the northern town of Pul-e-Khumri, says he chose not to send his children to school for a number of days after watching footage of an explosion at another school in their province.



“When the TV channel showed bloodstained clothes and shattered body parts of school students, my wife thought that the same thing would happen at the school where my children are studying,” he said.



Nematullah, a resident of Mazar-e-Sharif, said that it wasn’t just the public information films that were troubling, but the news in general, especially for children.



“It is true that news provides us with [important] information and we know what terrorists are capable of – but children do not understand and cannot bear to watch such scenes [of violence],” he said.



“We have a nine-year-old child and whenever we turn the TV on, he is so afraid that he goes to his bed,” he said.



Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.