Control, censor or coordination?

“We have been instructed not to talk to journalists. Only the GMIC [government media and information center] can talk,” director of the Afghan Red Crescent (ARCS) Office in Kandahar Province told me over the phone. I needed quotes/info for a story on conflict-related internal displacement – a humanitarian issue which falls within the core realms of the ARCS.

“Coordination” is the word you’d receive if you ask government officials why information is strictly controlled. The government, they say, should speak in one voice.

Principally and constitutionally, the ARCS should be independent and neutral from government politics. And when it comes to humanitarian information/analysis the ARCS must be a credible, transparent and accessible source.

Indeed, this war is not only about suicide/IED attacks and aerial strikes by warring parties. It is equally fought through propaganda, spin and lies. For this so-called ‘soft war’ there are structures, bodies and spin doctors.

Filtered information is not good for the health of societies, history tells us. The challenge is on journalists how to write the unfiltered truth.