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The Italian Lived; the Afghan DiedHow ransoming a foreign journalist played into the Taliban's hands.

By Gregory Warner
Posted Monday, April 9, 2007, at 3:00 PM ET

(Continued from page 1)

The Afghan government claims Naqshbandi's freedom was supposed to be part of that deal. But on March 19, when the exchange was made and weary but elated Mastrogiacomo was released to media fanfare, Naqshbandi was nowhere to be seen. Days later, the Taliban admitted they still had the Afghan journalist and wanted three more prisoners freed in exchange for his release.

Then the Taliban allowed Naqshbandi to call a Pakistani journalist, Rahimullah Yousafzai, with a prepared statement. "You have forgotten the Afghan journalist," Naqshbandi told Yousafzai. "You are worried only for the foreigners, and you are not worried for Afghans."

Yousafzai called the statement a "clever move" by Naqshbandi's captors. "They put Karzai on the defensive," he told me. Yousafzai said that the Afghan and Italian governments had set themselves up for the accusation by failing to secure Naqshbandi's release. "It played right into the Taliban's hands."

Well before the Taliban stoked the coals, anger had been building on the streets of Afghanistan. The day Mastrogiacomo was released, a mob blocked the hospital where he was recuperating. They protested the government's "double standards" and demanded to know why the slain driver's body had not been returned along with the Italian journalist. (It wasn't yet known that Naqshbandi was still being held by the Taliban.)

Rahimullah Samander, head of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association, says he's been fielding distress calls from members, especially in the south. "Afghan journalists should not work with internationals, that's what people are saying," Samander said. "They put us at risk, then they go back to their countries, leaving us in the same situation. … Daniele was very happy to work with Ajmal, until they were at risk."

Of course, local journalists always face extra risks in war zones. In Iraq, 30 of the 32 journalists killed so far have been Iraqi, according to a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Foreign journalists simply have more resources, more visibility, and more places to turn to for help.

In Afghanistan, the flourishing press is recognized as one of the few bright spots in the country's democratic experiment. But those press freedoms are increasingly under attack. Journalists in Afghanistan have become targets, not just of the Taliban, but also of warlords-turned-government-officials trying to avoid scrutiny. Today, the Afghan parliament started to debate sweeping legislation that would make censorship of the press a lot easier. Under the new law, journalists could be jailed for publishing work deemed "humiliating and offensive." The fight for Naqshbandi, say many Afghan journalists, was also a fight for the rights of a free press.

"We told [our government], please learn from the Italians, how the Italian government campaigned to protect and save their journalist," Samander said. He claims they were ignored. "There's this feeling that if we risk ourselves to find the good stories, there's going to be no one to protect us."

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Gregory Warner is an independent public radio and print reporter. He traveled to Afghanistan last month on an International Reporting Project fellowship from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Najib Sharifi in Kabul contributed to this report.
Photograph of Ajmal Naqshbandi by Shah Marai/AFP/Getty Images.
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