A BBC reporter talks about RTA, the state broadcaster in Afghanistan, and how pictures of the president never made it to air one night.

An excerpt:

... The state broadcaster RTA - does not always manage to get its pictures of the president on air, even though this appears to be its primary function.

I know this because I visited the station a few weeks ago to watch the main evening news go out.

Shortly before airtime there was a series of frantic phone calls.

It was one of the cameramen, I was told, who was on his way back from the presidential palace with pictures of Mr Karzai making his latest pronouncement or meeting his latest guest.

Sadly the cameraman was coming back on foot, as the station had been unable to afford transport, and he was ringing to say he was not going to make it in time.

I cannot judge whether this was the true reason for the non-appearance of images of the president that night, but I can say that it was more than eight minutes into the bulletin before the viewers saw anything other than the newsreader.

Not much fun, frankly.

But then working as a journalist at RTA probably is not much fun either.