That article bore the byline of Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, described as “our staff reporter.” Mr. Ahmadi is the Taliban’s official spokesman for southern Afghanistan. His counterpart in the east and north, Zabiullah Mujahid, is also frequently listed as a Nation “staff reporter.”

Still, The Nation is a fringe publication, owned by the right-wing Pakistani nationalist Majid Nizami, that sells only 10,000 copies daily, by the most generous industry estimates. Few copies ever reach Afghanistan. (The most respected paper in Pakistan, Dawn, sells at least 10 times as many copies.)

Editors of less lurid English-language publications say that such brazenly pro-Taliban coverage is the exception, though the Pakistani press features plenty of criticism of President Hamid Karzai’s government and of the United States. “The Afghans have gone overboard,” said Rashed Rahman, editor of The Daily Times, based in Lahore. “I understand their sensitivities, but to say the Pakistani press is pro-Taliban is difficult to justify.”

Intermedia Pakistan, an aid group that specializes in news media development, recently conducted an analysis of how Afghanistan is portrayed in the Pakistani news media. Its executive director, Adnan Rehmat, said there was a strong pro-Taliban bias after the 2001 invasion by the United States, but the bias shifted after homegrown Pakistani Taliban militants took up arms.

Even so, the deep suspicions between the two countries are reflected in the press.

Ahmad Ahmadani, a staff correspondent employed by The Nation, rather than the Taliban, called the Afghan government’s action “a form of intimidation.” While he agreed that The Nation was somewhat pro-Taliban in its tone, he said it reflected how Muslims in general feel, “so how can they talk against them?” The more mainstream English-language papers in Pakistan offer plenty of considered analysis — some of it sharply critical of the powerful military. But publications in Urdu, the main language of Pakistan and a widely spoken tongue in eastern Afghanistan, are another matter. Some carry extreme views that at times make The Nation seem a model of restraint.