“Freedom of Speech Day” was marked in Kabul on December 19. Over the last ten years, freedom to speak has caused many developments in the media and has helped in opening the minds of people to allow them to be better informed. Although challenges remain solid for ‘freedom of expression,’ things have to be allowed to move forward with at a slow but consistent pace.

Print and electronic media have a troublesome history in Afghanistan. There were numerous restrictions on media in Afghanistan before the Taliban regime took over the country. However, the Taliban proved to be the worst for freedom of speech. They simply crushed all forms of the media. Taliban’s era turned out to be the bleakest era in the history of Afghan media.

During Taliban’s Emirate of Afghanistan, media was locked in a box. Television sets were hanged, musical cassettes and CDs both audio and video disappeared from the market. Nobody was allowed to take or draw any pictures. According to them such activities were not Islamic and if anyone listened to music or watched a movie he would bear severe punishment under Islamic Shariah i mposed by Taliban. However, Taliban were ousted from government in late 2001.

When it comes to freedom of expression there is a difference of cheese and chalk between Afghanistan under Taliban and post-Taliban Afghanistan. Over the last decade, dozens of TV channels, hundreds of radio channels, newspapers and magazines have been established which in itself signals the usefulness of freedom of speech in a country.

The biggest challenge for media and freedom of expression is not the restrictions levied by the government but the worst level of security prevailing in the country. Development of media in Afghanistan has not occurred without sacrifices.

Scores of people working with Afghan media as reporter, anchor, actor, editor or writer have been gunned down by insurgents or criminal with unknown identity. The government has failed to bring the murders to justice. Additionally, working for a media in certain provinces that are under strong influence of Taliban is a greatly risky task.

Allowing people to speak freely has a very crucial role in mental advancement of masses in a country. On the other hand a strong media serves as an invaluable asset for a country. Therefore the government must allow media to flourish in a secure environment and work to address issues being faced by media and freedom of expression.