Mediastan Page #5

We also fund the Institute

For War and Peace...

...Reporting. How lucky

that I noticed the mistake.

Hello is the IWPR?

My name is Johannes, I just got your telephone number from

Anne Charlotte Malm at the Swedish Military Base here in Mazar-e-Sharif

we are just heading off towards your office

together with Enayat, a local journalist who will help translate.

Alright, see you soon.

When I knew that there was an attack on the United Nations

I was just driving to the UN compund, in my car

[ ENAYAT NAJAFIZADA,

journalist ]

and when I got there, there was hundreds of people at the UN

and the police were not letting journalists in.

But I got some information and I sent it to my office in Kabul.

It was a really hard day for me

because everyone was calling me to help them.

How does it work...?

It was very good in terms of finding money.

But in terms of humans who got killed it was a sorrow.

I was very angry and it was sad.

But in terms of the news it was for the first time

that the UN in Afghanistan came under attack.

There were journalists calling me from London

from BBC, from CNN

asking 'hey we need to hire you for a day'.

Even from Sweden, Aftonbladet.

And then I was telling them I don't have time

but they were paying very well when I was working for them

So what do you do then? You tell them on the phone what's happening?

Yeah on the telephone, I was writing on my laptop,

and I was sending them emails.

I earned more than ten to twelve thousand dollars.

You mean per month?

- No, just in a couple of days

How much!? Ten, twelve thousand dollars!?

Yes, sending videos, selling videos, selling pictures, text.

Only for two days when I worked with a Swedish guy

I took three thousand dollars.

Therefore Aftonbladet and everyone is very angry with me.

Why are they angry with you?

- Because I am taking their money.

No they are not angry at you.

- They are sometimes angry.

Frontline reporting

Civil society building

International justice

Human rights

Womens rights

Truth

Good governance

Freedom of information

Peace

Democracy

Democracy

IWPR:

IWPR:

IWPR makes a difference

The greatest guarantor of Freedom is Truth.

We have been working with the WikiLeaks materials

in different parts of the world, in different countries

and we are looking for a media partner in Afghanistan.

Somebody who would be interested in taking and

[ BABAK QAYUM,

"Institute for War and Peace Reporting" ]

working with the WikiLeaks material here.

If you think it is something that you can work with

then we would be willing to give it to you.

There is no doubt that you are trusted to work on these stories

but we have a problem.

The problem is that we ourselves had a newspaper here

it was a daily paper, with activities in the past years...

And there was a group of journalists that were working for it.

But some people made a plot against them

and one of their colleagues was sentenced to death.

He is very afraid.

I will sign for the information.

But if you sign it, it means that you will be

the person that gets the material.

I will be the one.

And then I will give the information to him.

In that case you will be the one in control of the material.

I will be the one, because I can speak English

if you ever want to be in contact with me I will be available.

He is very old.

The weather is very hot.

It is because I don't understand English...

He was a communist.

He is a joker...

And he is very afraid that you are going to plot against him.

No, I am making jokes!

Let me make another joke - he was a member of KGB.

He was a member of the CIA.

OK, I will put a signature on another paper

and I will put the name of my organisation on it.

It's called Otash. Fire. We are Fire.

I was against the Governor

my brother was prosecuted because he was critical of the Governor.

I will do this, but I will give the information to him

in order to help him to use it in his reporting.

Please give the information to Enayat.

Enayat, please sign it.

Hi Julian this is Enayat I am an Afghan journalist

based in Northern Afghanistan.

I just met Johannes this morning

at a ceremony in the PRT ISAF base in Mazar.

I didn't know that...

...however when I heard initially

that having access to this information would help me

as an Afghan journalist

to disclose the faces of warlords

the faces of those who have committed crimes

the faces of those who have committed genocide.

But later on when I knew that having these materials

could be dangerous

since Afghanistan is an insecure country

and there is no guarantee for the life of a journalist.

Therefore it made me a little bit impressed

and it made me a little bit stressed.

Therefore I don't know how to deal with this material

but I know these materials are very important

in order to help the journalists

in order to enable them to do their stories

because all these documents are a proof.

By having these documents they can do their stories.

One of the most important things for journalists is that

they are facing a lack of proof and information.

I don't know, I'm still thinking of how to deal with this.

Well, the country that you are in is somewhat unique

as far as the US is concerned.

We don't quite understand what the risk situation is in your country

and how much pressure can be

meaningfully applied to you and other people.

For example, if you immediately said:

I have this material.

And you said this publicly in many papers

And that we're going to show what is really happening here.

And I got this and I don't care

what the US Government thinks about this

and they can go to hell.

And you said 'and its just me that is doing this

and no one else'.

that would be a very strong motivation

for them to crush you.

Yes, as far as I know

US Forces are more than our Army by numbers.

It is clear that this is another US...

...in terms of having forces.

And you know they have access to all information

to every Afghan everywhere.

I'm sure there is some information, there are some reports

about what the US really wants.

Do they want to continue this war

in order to have it's profits?

I'm sure that if a group of journalists came together

we would be able to handle it.

But if it's only me

I'm sure it's difficult for me.

It's not an easy job.

Here's a cable about the Turkmeni President and Jebediah Bush

[ Location:

Turkmenistan ]

the son of President George Bush Senior.

It's called 'Meeting with the President'.

TX Oil Directors, including Jebediah Bush

the son of the 41st US President

met with the President of Turkmenistan.

The purpose of the meeting was to explore possible

business opportunities in Turkmenistan's oil sector.

They immediately recognised the emphasis of

form over substance in Turkmenistan.

They were both surprised and impressed by the rapid

pace of construction in the capital.

The Oil Directors worked to build a more personal

relationship with the Turkmen officials

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