Despite a weeklong advertising blitz, Jordan canceled plans Saturday to broadcast a soap opera about Afghanistan after an Internet threat against everyone from actors to TV executives if the show portrayed the Taliban in a negative light.
| But what did Ebert & Roper think? |
The series "Al-Tareeq ila Kabul," Arabic for "The Road to Kabul" chronicles life under Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and was being aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began Friday in most Muslim countries. The Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Corp., broadcast the first episode on Friday and went ahead with its scheduled programming to air the soap opera's second episode Saturday night. Jordanian television had promised the series would begin in the early days of Ramadan. On Thursday, Jordanian television officials said the broadcast might be postponed for a few days because of technical problems. But on Saturday they canceled plans to show it.
| Technical problems = couldn't find a technician brave enough to load the tape. |
The broadcast was "suspended indefinitely upon a request from its producer, the Qatari television," Abdul-Halim Araibyat, director general of the state Jordan Radio and Television Corp. told The Associated Press. He said Jordan's decision to suspend the show was due only to the Qatari request and not to the threat. He didn't know why the producers asked for the suspension and phones rang unanswered at Qatari television. |