Afghan Leader Urged to Release Reporters

By: (AP) International press freedom groups on Friday urged Afghan President Hamid Karzai to release two Afghan reporters arrested this week for publishing an article that authorities charge defames Islam.

Sayed Mahdawi, chief editor of the Aftab weekly, and Ali Riza Payam, its deputy editor, were arrested in the Afghan capital Kabul for allegedly violating a press law that prohibits publication of articles defaming Islam.

In an open letter to Karzai, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the arrests and urged the Afghan president to drop the charges against the journalists. The French-based Reporters Without Borders made a similar appeal.

"It is regrettable and worrying for the future of freedom of expression in Afghanistan to see a newspaper closed down and two journalists arrested for voicing their views on Islam's place in the country's future constitution," Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Robert Menard said in a statement.

The United Nations and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission have also expressed concern about the arrests.

Defamation of Islam is a sensitive subject in Afghanistan, which has been led since the 1990s by religious conservatives, many of whom are back in power despite the ouster of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

The controversial June 11 article published in Aftab, "Holy Fascism," accused leaders of the Northern Alliance -- including former President Burhanuddin Rabbani, Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, Asif Moshini, and current Vice President Abdul Karim Khalili -- of going astray of Islam.

Rabbani, Sayyaf, and Khalili each led factions during the devastating 1992-1996 civil war in Afghanistan that badly damaged the capital, killed 50,000 people and gave rise to the Taliban, who put an end to the factional feuding in Kabul.

The Northern Alliance returned to Kabul in November 2001 after a U.S.-led air campaign ousted the Taliban government.

"Unfortunately, press freedom in Afghanistan has been eroding in recent months, marked by a sharp increase in threats and attacks on the press there," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, adding that journalists, including Mahdawi, have received death threats for their reporting.

"Openness is particularly crucial in Afghanistan at this moment as the country seeks to rebuild from years of conflict," she said.