{"id":11056,"date":"2021-01-19T11:48:35","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T09:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/?p=11056"},"modified":"2021-02-15T14:40:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T12:40:19","slug":"afghan-leaders-sideline-spokesmen-in-an-escalating-misinformation-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openasia.org\/en\/2021\/01\/afghan-leaders-sideline-spokesmen-in-an-escalating-misinformation-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Leaders Sideline Spokesmen in an Escalating Misinformation War"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

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By\u00a0<\/span>Thomas Gibbons-Neff<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Fahim Abed<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Najim Rahim<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Ghani administration and the Taliban are fighting a public-relations battle, with the government taking more drastic measures to control the flow of information.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The site of a rocket attack at a house in Kabul, Afghanistan, last month. The government has tightened the control of information on civilian deaths in recent attacks.Credit…Omar Sobhani\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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KABUL, Afghanistan \u2014 After Ahmad Jawad Hijri saw the wounded children in the hospital and learned of the Afghan airstrike that put them there, killing nine others around their age in northern Afghanistan, he never expected that his response would land him in jail.<\/p>\n

But Mr. Hijri, then the spokesman for the governor of Takhar Province, was arrested, imprisoned for three days and then fired after telling the news media what had happened \u2014 a standard part of his role which he had performed many times before. Top officials in Kabul insisted that only\u00a0Taliban<\/a>\u00a0fighters had been killed in the strike, not children, and that anyone who said otherwise was to be prosecuted.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the hospital I saw the wounded children,\u201d Mr. Hijri said. \u201cI did not make a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The war in Afghanistan has long been one of competing narratives. But the government\u2019s response to the Oct. 22 strike in Takhar Province signaled a shift in tactics by President Ashraf Ghani\u2019s administration: an overt declaration of its willingness to suppress and deny information on the deaths of innocent people. It also highlighted the changing political landscape as peace negotiations continue in Qatar and the Taliban move to take advantage of the attention they are attracting on the world stage.<\/p>\n

The news briefings that defined the early years of the war as both sides jockeyed to win Afghan hearts and minds have nearly ceased. That leaves its main players \u2014 the United States, the Taliban and the government \u2014 all testing different communication strategies to achieve their desired ends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n