Karim Khoram

Abdul Karim Khoram is the current "Minister of Culture, Information, Tourism and Youth Affairs" of Afghanistan in the cabinet of Hamid Karzai. An ethnic Pashtun, Khoram is a member of Hezb-e Islami and was a top henchmen of the wanted terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. [ [http://www.iwpr.net/?p=arr&s=f&o=342552&apc_state=henh "Ethnic Tensions Surface in Museum Dispute",] , Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 08-Feb-08.]

Khoram was appointed by Karzai to the position in May 2006. Subsequently, he removed the Persian sign on the ministry's building and now has it only in Pashto. Khoram scrapped initial plans to make the "Afghan National Radio and Television" into a public service run by an independent board and he now now runs service. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/world/asia/07afghanmedia.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin "Afghan Media Face Threat of Controls"] , The New York Times, May 7, 2007.]

On February 10, 2008, he suspended three journalists for five days and fined them five days pay for using the Persian word for university ("daneshgah") instead of the Pashto word ("pohantoon") in their writings. [ [http://www.haaba.com/topic/media?q=node/92220 "Poets, writers protest Afghan journalists' fine"] , Habaa Communications, 16 February 2008.]

References

External links

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/02/080210_v-hn-farsi-language-punishment.shtml
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2006/08/060830_ram-culture-iv.shtml
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2007/01/070101_v-dn-khorram-iv.shtml
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/story/2008/02/080212_s-summon-of-khorram.shtml