"Mr (Baseer) Babai has not been dismissed at all", said Abdul Karim Khurram in an interview to the BBC Persian Service, "As far as I know he's been reprimanded in a disciplinary action. I think he has been deprived of 2 to 3 days of his salary."

Khurram believes that the Balkhi journalist had to be punished for using expressions and words disapproved by Afghan authorities.

The official name of the Balkh University is "Puhantoon-e Balkh" and everyone is obliged to use nothing but this term in their reporting for the Afghan National TV and Radio stations, said the Afghan Minister.

According to earlier reports, Baseer Babai, a Balkh TV reporter in Mazar-i Sharif, has lost his job for using Persian equivalents of Pashto words for "faculty", "university" and "students". Khurram says, Persian equivalents of those words are not recognized officially in Afghanistan and using them is against the law. He did not refer to any particular law that prohibits using those terms.

Khurram accepted the fact that over 400 mass media in Afghanistan refuse to use Pashtun words in their Persian (Dari) broadcasts and publications. However, he insists that state-run companies should abide by the Constitution of the country and use exclusively the official version of terms and titles as they have "a very long historical background." Referring to different versions of names and terms, Khurram maintained that "this chaotic situation must be prevented by the state broadcasts and publications."

As for the rest of the media, Khurram plans to establish a special institution which would define and control linguistic norms in both Persian (Dari) and Pashto mass media. The committee will consist of experts from the Academy of Sciences, the Kabul University and the Culture Ministry, informed Khurram.

The first instance of retribution for using Persian words in Balkh, which is mainly populated by Persian-speakers, has triggered wide-spread discussions in Afghanistani and Persian media within and outside the country.

Afghanistani intellectuals believe that the Persian language of Iran and (Persian) Dari of Afghanistan are two dialects of the same language. However, some of Pashtun politicians or those whose native language is other than Persian try to draw border lines between the two dialects.