Dateline to screen journo “embedded” with Taliban

Dateline has secured the rights to broadcast footage by Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal who was “embedded” with the Taliban.

Late last year Refsdal secured unprecedented access to Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan. They agreed to let him film their efforts to destroy US forces, from their position high in the Khyber Pass.

Twenty five years ago Refsdal went to Afghanistan to report on the Afghan rebel movement fighting the Soviet troops. At the time, they were considered by the West as ‘freedom fighters’, not insurgents. He used the contacts he made back then to secure access to the Taliban this time around – a group now considered the West’s enemies.

“I wanted to go back to see for myself who these people are. Are the Taliban really such fanatics as they are portrayed in the media?” he asks.

But not only does Refsdal capture the moment the Taliban hit a US convoy, he also has to escape the resulting retaliation from US Special Forces. And when he tries to return to the Taliban, they turn on him and hold him hostage.

SBS will screen the footage this Sunday night.

The body of Jason Brown, the 18th Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan, arrived back home in Perth yesterday.

Dateline airs 8:30pm Sunday on SBS ONE.