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Afghan journalists are up in arms over what they call double standards after the rescue of a New York Times reporter and the death of his Afghan translator. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the head of the Afghan Independent Journalists’ Association, Rahimullah Samandar, about the incident.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. Afghan journalists are angry over the death of a colleague. Sultan Munadi worked for the New York Times. He was killed during a British army operation to rescue him and New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. The two men were being held hostage by the Taliban. Farrell was freed and taken away unharmed. Munadi’s body was left behind. Rahimullah Samandar heads the Afghan Independent Journalist Association. He says the rescue operation was ill timed.

RAHIMULLAH SAMANDAR: We were trying to negotiate. We sent some elders and also we talked to the Afghan journalist the same night around 12:00 midnight. So he was very okay and he was not very concerned of he will be not released or his colleague from New York Times will not be released. So this operation started very earlier and the result come that we lost a colleague in this operation and shootings from different sides.

WERMAN: Mr. Samandar are you saying that the rescue operation was actually unnecessary?

SAMANDAR: Yeah. We think that it was necessary maybe later on when our talk was fail and we were not able to release both of them by negotiation, by talking to them. So this started very suddenly and this was not well planned and not coordinated with different organization – Afghan local organization, security organization – even when we talked to the local officials in Kunduz, even security officials, they were informed as well so.

WERMAN: Has the Afghan Independent Journalist Association had success in the past getting journalists released?

SAMANDAR: Yeah we have many examples. For example a big delegation of Al Jazeera reporters were kidnapped in Kuna, in a very tough area, and we released them with talks, with negotiation, with the help of local elders. A few days later in the same Kuna there was another incident. There were many incidents even [INDISCERNIBLE] Europe [INDISCERNIBLE] reporter. If you even noticed this is US-supported radio. So their reporters were kidnapped in Kandahar, in Zabul, Ghazni. But after negotiation we were able to release them. So we have many other examples of this if you want that’s along this to tell you. So in this case no one gave us this chance to complete our talks and our negotiations. And Sultan Munadi was very happy when he talked to us and his family at midnight and he was hopeful and he was thinking that maybe he will be released because we … . So recently you know that from one [INDISCERNIBLE] the Taliban also changed their strategy how to deal with media. They are not very tough like they were in the past in 2007 or ’06.

WERMAN: I know you’re critical of this raid and the lack of communication and coordination but isn’t secrecy a crucial part of this type of operation?

SAMANDAR: I’m sure. Everyone is talking about this. There is no need to tell everyone. But at least we are talking about the part of the real operations. That was not well planned. That was not completed very well because the information we got from local sources they told that Munadi was shooted and when he was calling for rescue and he was calling that we are journalists, we are journalists. So never he was heard. And also when we saw the Munadi body that we find even there were signs of fire on his neck and he was shooted from the front, not from the back. And the Taliban they were in the back side not in the front side. So this is something that show that these are not planned very well and they were not having enough information of location, of situation.

WERMAN: Whatever happened during this rescue mission that the exact details still not totally concrete. These soldiers did risk their lives and one died on this mission. What would you say to their families? I mean mistakes do happen in war.

SAMANDAR: We are saying all killings, all lost in this whole operations, even the British soldier, the Afghan civilian, two civilian but the problem Afghan journalists are very unhappy about this that many international media using Afghan journalist helping them and they are helping very well but when they are going to such locations, the war zones or conflict areas, they never take care of Afghan journalists with them. And the way he was left there. This is very anger part and journalists are very unhappy. If the marines took his body outside the location then this was less problems. Why they left Afghan journalist there and they took only the New York Times reporter with them. So this part is very unhappy part. But if someone say that this was a mistake and sorry for this and this is the body and this was operation, this was midnight, it was okay but nobody told us that. Not the British soldiers, not the British embassy, no one.

WERMAN: Have you had any conversation or explanation from the British embassy?

SAMANDAR: Nothing. Nothing yet in these two days. No communication with the media. No communication with journalist organization. Nothing we got.

WERMAN: Rahimullah Samandar, the head of the Afghan Independent Journalist Association. Thanks very much for your time.

SAMANDAR: Thank you very much.

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