Afghan Ministry Bans the Broadcast of 5 Foreign Soap Operas

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

After four years of watching television programs test the boundaries of decorum and build devoted audiences in the process, conservatives are striking back.

In the latest battle of the long-simmering war between cultural conservatives and liberals, the minister for information and culture ordered television networks to stop broadcasting five soap operas on Tuesday, saying they were not in keeping with “Afghan religion and culture.”

The minister, Abdul Karim Khurram, said last week that he had made the decision in consultation with the Council of Clerics, made up of the country’s most influential religious leaders.

The private television companies initially refused to obey the order and said they would plead their case to Afghanistan’s president. The television shows, all soap operas produced in India, continued to be broadcast every evening and have much of the urban population hooked.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/world/asia/22soaps.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

---

Censorship! Another step down the road of democracy...

[rpannier]

1. Gee...cultural conservatives strike again

If their beliefs and their faith were so strong a few Indian produced soap operas shouldn't be more powerful than the word of God.