KABUL - A 16-year-old Afghan girl fronted a dramatic return to the airwaves for Kabul Television yesterday, after a five-year TV blackout under the Taleban.
Outlining an evening of programmes beginning with a reading from the Koran followed by music, cartoons, interviews and news in Dari and Pashto, Mariam Shakebar welcomed
back the capital's viewers, dressed stylishly in a brown and cream headscarf.
Ms Shakebar was an 11-year-old presenter of children's programmes when the Taleban's Shariah law came into play, banning music and television and forbidding women from working.
In yesterday's broadcast, her co-presenter, Shamsuddin Hamid, cast aside the Taleban's unbending laws on appearance sporting half a day's stubble.
He promised that nothing would be censored and the views of all Afghans would be aired, thanking all those who had worked to bring the station back on air six days after Taleban forces fled the capital. "Greetings, viewers, we hope you are all well!" he said.
"We're glad to have destroyed terrorism and the Taleban and to be able to present this programme to you."
A few wealthy residents took the risk of watching foreign television channels via satellite dishes, but most people kept their sets hidden away. Radio broadcasts fed them a daily diet of Islamic prayers, teachings and Taleban propaganda.
Engineers at the Afghan capital's television station, half-destroyed and empty since 1996, worked around the clock to bring Kabul TV back on air at 6 pm local time.
The station's huge satellite dish was demolished by fighting between rival mujahideen factions in the early 1990s.
Technicians instead hoisted an ageing 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 programmes.
"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." Broadcasting through a small transmitter, Kabul TV will be seen at first only for three hours a day in central Kabul.
But the station has ambitious plans. "We want to expand our broadcasts, put out all kinds of programmes for the whole of the day," he said. "We're asking for help from foreigners so we can be a proper TV station."
Last week, when the Northern Alliance rolled into Kabul one of its first acts was to put three female journalists on Radio Kabul, renamed from its Taleban-era Radio Shariat.
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Kabul TV back on air
KABUL - A 16-year-old Afghan girl fronted a dramatic return to the airwaves for Kabul Television yesterday, after a five-year TV blackout under the Taleban.
Outlining an evening of programmes beginning with a reading from the Koran followed by music, cartoons, interviews and news in Dari and Pashto, Mariam Shakebar welcomed
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