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Teenage girl brings Kabul TV back on air

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan television has broadcast its first three hours of news, featuring a teenage female presenter.

In a sign of just how much life has changed since the Taliban retreated last week from Kabul, 16-year-old Mariam Shakebar welcomed back the capital's viewers and outlined the evening's program.

A reading from the Koran followed by music, cartoons, interviews and news in Daria and Pashto featured in Kabul Television's first broadcast following a five-year blackout.

After taking Kabul in September 1996, the Taliban banned television and women were forbidden from working outside the home, attending school, or leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male blood relative.

Shakebar, then an 11-year-old presenter of children's programs, lost her job.

Following the landmark television broadcast, preparations are under way for the reopening of local cinemas on Monday in Kabul.

The public will have the chance to see a film -- from India's Bollywood.

'Nothing censored'

Engineers at the Afghan capital's television station, half-destroyed by war and empty since 1996, worked around the clock to bring Kabul TV back on air at 6:00 pm (1330 GMT).

The station's huge satellite dish was demolished by fighting between rival mujahedeen factions in the early 1990s.

Afghan 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.

Co-presenter Shamsuddin Hamid thanked those who had worked to bring the station back on air just six days after Taliban forces fled the capital and the Northern Alliance took control.

"Greetings, viewers, we hope you are all well!" Reuters news agency quoted him as saying on his broadcast.

"We're glad to have destroyed terrorism and the Taliban and to be able to present this program to you."

Excited about the future, Hamid promised that nothing would be censored on Kabul Television and the views of all Afghans would be aired.

The United Nations is at present trying to cobble together a broad-based government, made up of many different ethnic groups.

'Help needed'

"When we lost television here, it was a terrible blow," Kabul TV Director Humayon Rawi told Reuters in the chaotic studio.

"This is a big day for us. Our men and women are working together side by side."

Broadcasting with 30-year-old equipment through a 10-Watt transmitter, Kabul TV will be seen at first only for three hours a day in central Kabul.

But the first hurdle over, the station has ambitious plans for the future.

"We want to expand our broadcasts, put out all kinds of programs for the whole of the day," he said.

"We're asking for help from foreigners so we can be a proper TV station."