hankyoreh

By Kang Kyung-ran, freelance journalist

I could not help but feel ashamed when an Afghan journalist made remark to me.
“South Koreans, particularly the South Korean media, has no idea about the hostage crisis in Afghanistan at all.”
The journalist is serving as a local correspondent for a major newspaper in South Korea. “Though I send report everyday to the newpaper, it’s unclear to me how can draw an accurate picture of the current hostage crisis. It’s a matter involving Koreans, so why don’t send Korean journalists to report from here?” His questions continued to embarrass me.

With not a single Korean journalist stationed here, the foreign news media dominate the reports on the South Korean hostages. But the foreign news media, based in the Afghan capital of Kabul, rely heavily on local correspondents for their reports. Most of these local correspondents worked at Ghazni or Kandahar and usually collect information form Taliban informants or elders in local tribes. This kind of information is then reported by the foreign news media. For local correspondents with relatively good knowledge of the inner workings of the Taliban, many Western news outlets, as well as media organizations from South Korea and Japan, want to hire them.

As it is very rare for journalists to make direct contact with Taliban leaders, the competition among the foreign news media is regarded by their local correspondents as a war of information. The accuracy of information is dependant upon how close a local correspondent can get to the Taliban’s stronghold.

Let me show you an example. On Aug. 1, some news reports claimed that the South Korean government delegation had met with some of the hostages. At that time, the South Korean and Japanese media claimed, “It’s certain that the South Korean government delegation met the hostages. We confirmed this fact through the Taliban and local residents.” However, a Pakistani journalist denied these reports, citing his telephone conversation with Abdullah(Abu Mansur) , who is believed to be the mastermind behind the kidnapping.

Given the current situation, there is another question: what more could Korean journalists do here if they were to rely solely on local correspondents, as the foreign news media do?

Another frustration comes from the South Korean media and the government, who have been publishing the remarks of purported Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi. Almost everyday, the purported spokesman has telephoned foreign journalists and given updates about the Taliban’s activities, such as where the Taliban attacked or how many NATO soldiers died and how many Taliban victims there were.

But the foreign journalists in Kabul say that two or three people may be using the name “Ahmadi.” The journalists, who receive Ahmadi’s telephone calls, say that the purported spokesman’s voice has changed from time to time. Ahmadi has also frequently changed telephone numbers and uses five to six different telephone numbers to make calls. Some say Ahmadi’s telephone number once changed three times in one hour.

The South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan has demonstrated that on-site reporting is not always the best method for journalists whose nation may have an interest in the issue at hand but who are themselves far-removed from the country in which a given incident is taking place. The Afghan Islamic Press, which is believed to have ties with the Taliban, is gaining attention with its relatively fast and accurate reports. Based in Pakistan, the AIP accurately reported on the Taliban’s moves in Ghazni city via telephone and the Internet. The AIP can be viewed as the symbol of a journalism that is facing a borderless war.