Missing the humanity of the Taliban

Lyse Doucet, BBC World News reporter, a good friend of the Frontline Club, old Afghan hand and a regular at club events, spoke about reporting from Afghanistan in Edinburgh recently. She called for more of a focus on the humanity of the Afghan people in media coverage of Afghanistan,

‘What’s lacking in the coverage of the Afghans is the sense of the humanity of the Afghans. ‘In the Prince Harry coverage for example, there were all these people out there but you never really saw them. ‘You knew that the bombs were dropping in that direction and the guns pointing in that direction but you never got a sense of how Afghans are as a people.’ link via Alex’s bookmarks

Controversially and quite possibly misinterpreted by the majority is the latter statement,

Asked what was missing in British coverage, she added: ‘It may sound odd but the humanity of the Taliban, because the Taliban are a wide, very diverse group of people.