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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (41765)	11/18/2001 6:30:39 PM
From: SmoothSail	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

Pretty horrendous pictures of what the NA is doing. Message 16670186

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (41765)	11/18/2001 9:53:52 PM
From: Susan G	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

Kabul TV Back on Air After Five Year Hiatus By REUTERS November 18, 2001 (AFP) After a five-year blackout ordered by the Taliban, Kabul Television came back on air with a three-hour program introduced by Mariam Shakebar, left. Filed at 10:38 a.m. ET KABUL (Reuters) - After a five-year blackout ordered by the Taliban, Kabul Television came back on air Sunday with a three-hour program introduced by a 16-year-old Afghan girl. Wearing a stylish brown and cream headscarf, Mariam Shakebar welcomed back the capital's viewers and outlined the evening's entertainment of a reading from the Koran followed by music, cartoons, interviews and news in Dari and Pashto. Co-presenter Shamsuddin Hamid, in dark glasses and sporting a day-old stubble, thanked all those who had worked to bring the station back on air just six days after Taliban forces fled the capital and the Northern Alliance took control. ``Greetings, viewers, we hope you are all well!'' he said. ''We're glad to have destroyed terrorism and the Taliban and to be able to present this program to you.'' Hamid promised that nothing would be censored on Kabul Television and the views of all Afghans would be aired. Television was banned under the Taliban's hard-line Islamic regime, and women were forbidden from working. Shakebar, then an 11-year-old presenter of children's programs, lost her job. A few wealthy residents took the risk of watching foreign television channels via satellite dishes, but most people kept their sets hidden away in cupboards. Radio broadcasts fed them a daily diet of Islamic prayers, teachings and Taliban propaganda. Engineers at the Afghan capital's television station, half-destroyed by war and empty since 1996, worked around the clock to bring Kabul TV back on air at 6 p.m. The station's huge satellite dish was demolished by fighting between rival mujahideen factions in the early 1990s. Afghan technicians instead hoisted an aging antenna on the roof of Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, next to state-of-the-art equipment set up by foreign television networks broadcasting worldwide. Nearby a small white satellite dish, riddled with bullet holes, had already resumed broadcasting radio programs. ``When we lost television here, it was a terrible blow,'' Kabul TV Director Humayon Rawi said in the chaotic studio. ''This is a big day for us. Our men and women are working together side by side.'' Broadcasting with 30-year-old equipment through a 10-Watt transmitter, Kabul TV will be seen at first only for three hours a day in central Kabul. But the first hurdle over, the station has ambitious plans for the future. ``We want to expand our broadcasts, put out all kinds of programs for the whole of the day,'' he said. ``We're asking for help from foreigners so we can be a proper TV station.'' nytimes.com