It did not necessarily characterize the true state of the media in Afghanistan, however. "While it is always heartening in transitional post-conflict countries such as Afghanistan to witness a decrease in violence against the press, I am concerned that it may in fact be a result of widespread self-censorship and intimidation," said Wright. It remains to be seen whether gains from the election will translate into stronger institutions to protect the media, she added.

Most complaints from the opposition revolve around the indelible ink used to prevent multiple voting, with media bias or lack of access apparently not reaching a threshold of major concern.

With most of the ballots counted from the 9 October voting, Afghan transitional leader Hamid Karzai expected to emerge with a plurality, and perhaps a majority of the vote.

Journalists ordinarily face a daunting array of challenges and threats, Internews, an international media-assistance organization, said in a 30 September press release. (No subsequent attacks were reported.) Security threats, intimidation, lack of access to information, and inadequate communication technologies are among the difficulties reporters can face. Day to day, however, reporters and editors face the more routine problem of learning on the job in a climate of confusion about the media's mission and responsibilities. As in other transitional states, many newspapers and small radio stations amount to house organs for factions, parties, or warlords.

It is difficult to assess what audience penetration state and independent media really have when it comes to candidates' messages. International organizations say that with only about 25-30 percent of the population believed to be literate, radio is the best way to reach and educate the population. "TV is rare because sets are expensive, coverage is poor, and electricity is irregular. So yes, radio is king," Jon Newstrom, director of Internews Afghanistan, told RFE/RL recently.

According to an Internews survey in April 2004, state radio broadcasts cover 74 percent of the population, international radio stations 69.4 percent, and independent stations 38 percent.

Newstrom said people run their radios on batteries and wind-up rechargers, but added that it is difficult to assess how much news they received about elections. Although by law radio stations were required to broadcast two minutes of candidates' messages per week, few candidates availed themselves of the opportunity, said Newstrom.

Abdul Hamid Mobarze, a deputy minister of information and culture, said that small radio stations are important because just 6 percent of Afghans have electricity and thus many cannot watch television, "The Washington Post" reported 8 October. People buy transistor radios and batteries to hear their favorite programs, which often only broadcast a few hours on stations that maintain their own generators.

Given these limitations, it is difficult to estimate how much impact the radio stations really had on elections, or how they will function in consolidating the fragile gains of democracy post election. But small stations -- like Radio Karabagh outside Kabul -- were able to use their limited airtime to convey messages such as the arrival of election equipment in the provinces, and alerted people who noticed election violations to go to the local monitoring organizations run jointly by the United Nations and Afghan authorities.

Mobarze told "The Washington Post" that there are now 47 radio stations in Afghanistan, including both national government-run broadcasters and small, local, independent radios. The latter are the hope of Afghan villagers receiving news from the wider world. Internews, funded largely by the United States and European Union, is establishing a network of 24 radio stations to give people more access to news, although Internews officials acknowledge that 70 percent of FM format is music with only brief news updates.

For many, the October ballot was the first time they had covered elections. Internews media monitoring found that apart from the state-controlled papers, independent papers showed "a fair degree of independence." Although many newspapers have appeared on the scene in the last year, their impact is hard to assess, says Internews Afghanistan. Journalists covered issues such as challenges to Karzai, other candidates' views, the registration of women voters, registration problems, and security threats. Still, radio coverage was described as "rudimentary" with news infrequently updated and limited use of sound clips or direct quotes.

In a 17 September interview with Internews, Rahnaward Zaryaab, who heads the Information and Culture Ministry's media-monitoring commission, said his ministry had received no complaints and evidently had not yet issued an election report. Candidates, working under an admittedly unfamiliar system, complained of alleged bias but for the most part did not lodge formal reports. Media-commission officials outlined certain issues they would not address -- such as Islamic values, insulting personalities, and "speaking about matters that damage national unity."

In another interview, Barry Salaam of "Good Morning Afghanistan" on 10 September, described reports of a mullah in Baghlan who was telling people to vote in favor of a certain candidate and implying that others were not "good Muslims." He said these incidents "were a very good opportunity for us to understand the mentality in the provinces to see how people are being used and being directed to vote in certain ways for certain persons."

As for journalists' safety, Salaam told Internews that he believed the lack of unity among journalists and their unions was partly to blame for security concerns, but that the government had also not made security for journalists a priority.

Although no major attacks on the press were reported during the balloting, incidents in the weeks prior to the vote were indicative of the climate of fear that the media endures. Uniformed and plainclothes officers burst into the offices of "Salam Watandar" (Hello, Citizen), a station that broadcasts in Dari and Pashto, demanding to know a reporter's source for a story about a bomb plot at an Afghan ministry, Roya Aziz, an Internews worker told "The Christian Science Monitor" of 7 October.

Stations targeting female audiences have faced particular difficulties in a culture with heavy restrictions on women's mobility, especially after dark, said Aziz. Radio Sahar, a women's community radio station in Herat, was raided by armed guards of former Herat Province Governor Mohammad Ismail Khan. There are only four women-owned stations in Afghanistan where women are allowed behind the microphone, paktribune.com reported on 21 October. That number is acknowledged as progress by many observers, but the effect is still difficult to analyze. "Impact is too early to measure," said Newstrom.

In the 30 September issue of "Media Monitor," Internews said it thought journalists had begun to grapple with the need to write objectively but faced major threats. In the first issue of its "Freedom of Journalism in Afghanistan" newsletter in September, Internews said that most incidents simply go unreported -- so that international organizations and journalists alike are left uninformed. A fear of repercussions is the reason most cited for not reporting incidents, but a lack of communication facilities is also a factor. Most media view the climate of harassment and threats as routine to their job, and are unwilling to make threats against them public for fear of greater retaliation.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), which maintains a journalists' training program and helps reporters cover issues locally, said in a 4 October report that candidates did not seem to avail themselves readily of the media. General Abdul Rashid Dostum failed to show up for a 28 September news conference, for example, pass up an opportunity to get out his message. The news conference was supposed to be broadcast by RTA in a format made available for everyone on the ballot. In his place, one of Dostum's running mates, Shafiqa Habibi, a female journalist from Kabul, arrived late and addressed the audience. Mir Wais Sosial, director of "Salam Watandar," said candidates' reluctance to come before the media was due to the newness of the concept of appealing to the electorate directly. He said some candidates would not even accept his station's invitation to come to its studio. Others seemed to understand well the importance of radio, he said, and even offered to pay for their messages to be broadcast.

Yet politicians might also have been concerned about accountability to the public and having their statements taped for later comparison with their actions. Warlords unused to "new media techniques" have found tried-and-true "old media" methods work find to keep themselves in power. In late August, during a battle between forces loyal to Ismail Khan and others loyal to local commander Amanullah Khan, the chair of RTA walked into an independent radio station and made his own speech on the air, IWPR reported. Accompanied by armed soldiers, the RTA official asked the people to support Ismail Khan. The station manager took no action to prevent his action, nor did he protest the incident.

In Joma Bazar in September, 30 militia reportedly supporting Dostum descended on a village bazaar and began assaulting shoppers who had refused to go to an election meeting to support Dostum. After one man was beaten unconscious, 500 villagers obediently went to the meeting where they were ordered to vote for Dostum, "The Toronto Star" reported on 22 September.

The results at the ballot box of such heavy-handed tactics are difficult to judge, but lack of media savvy might have cost the opposition support. "It also appears that Karzai was more astute in making use of the media than his challengers, appearing more widely in interviews in print and on radio," said CPJ's Wright. Radio was probably the most effective conduit, Wright said, but local observers have reported to her that stations could have done more to educate listeners on issues and candidates.