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A hip-shaking performance by the pop star Shakira has provoked a showdown between the Afghan Government and the country's independent media.
Senior Muslim clerics have joined the Culture Ministry to warn Tolo TV, the country's largest private television station, of serious consequences following the broadcast of a concert by the Colombian singer.
The incident is the latest sign of a growing fightback by the country's powerful conservative establishment against the more liberal-minded newspapers and broadcast media and the tide of Western-backed liberal reforms since the fall of the Taleban Government in 2001.
Draconian new media legislation is soon to be signed into law by President Hamid Karzai after it was recently approved by Parliament. The measures will give the Government greater powers to limit broadcasts that are deemed damaging to Afghanistan and its culture, primarily by forcing television stations to carry more religious programmes or face going off air.
The Shakira broadcast caused consternation even though she appeared with computer pixellation covering her chest.
State television broadcast interviews with clerics and MPs criticising the concert while one pro-Government newspaper attacked the broadcast, claiming it would provoke suicide bombers.
But the owner of Tolo TV, Saad Mohseni, who grew up in Australia, said: "This was not that provocative and Shakira was pixellated. The Government are looking for an excuse to have a go at us. When we give airtime to the Taleban we are `talking to terrorists', when we air people criticising the Government we are told we are `opposing peace and reconciliation'."
Afghanistan's media has enjoyed a startling renaissance since 2001. Television was banned under the Taleban, but today eight independent television stations are broadcasting as well as more than 60 FM radio stations, while hundreds of newspapers and magazines are in circulation.
Instances of press intimidation have risen in the past year and two female journalists are among several murdered. The annual survey of media freedom by Reporters Without Borders ranked Afghanistan as 142nd out of 196 countries.
MPs were furious when Tolo TV recently broadcast footage of them nodding off and picking their noses during parliamentary debates.
- Telegraph Group Ltd
