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Lives, Jobs, Homeland: Afghan Women Journalists Lose All

Association of Women in Radio and Television (AWRT-K) (2022), 52 pp.

"According to a survey conducted by Reporters without Borders (RSF) in December 2021, from 10,790 people working in Afghan media (8,290 men and 2,490 women) at the start of August 2021, only 4,360 (3,950 men and 410 women) were still working and the number may reduce even further. For this survey, d ... ata were collected through online and in-person manual surveys in May 2022. The questionnaire included 23 questions and was completed by 308 respondents in Dari (75.97%) and Pashto (24.03%). All 100 percent respondents were female. The survey largely represented reporters (54.87%), followed by journalists (19.16%), producers (9.74%), presenters (3.90%) and others (12.01%). [...] A majority of respondents (67.86%) reported that they have lost their jobs since the de facto authorties’ takeover of Afghanistan in August. The highest ratio of respondents having lost their jobs compared to the respondents interviewed were in Bamyan (100%), followed by Kandahar (91%), Balkh (85%), Badakhshan (68%) and Kabul (62%). 60.39% of respondents reported that they have felt ‘major changes’ since the collapse of the former government. In addition, 28.90% respondents reported changes in some cases. As for the level of restrictions imposed on reporting since the de facto authorities’ takeover of power, an astounding 80.52% of respondents reported the case to be ‘very restricted’. As far as the reporting autonomy is concerned, 45.13% respondents mentioned that ‘Government Interferences have Increased’, while 35.71% responded as ‘Bad’ meaning the independency in journalists’ reporting is bad. 46.75% of respondents mentioned that the de facto authorities’ spokespersons do not respond to female journalists, followed by 29.55% who mentioned that they do respond, but just in some cases. All 100% of the respondents reported that they have received some kind of threat since the de facto authorities have taken over the power, and reported the major threat against female journalists to be the new restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities (52.9%), followed by the gender-based discrimination (18.8%), and threats posed by extremist groups (16.9%). A majority of the respondents (55.19%) reported that they were restricted from their work specifically due to their outfit/sense of clothing and some (27.92%) reported that they have experienced the same but to some extent only." (Executive summary, pages 5-6) more

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The Pen Vs the AK-47: The Future of Afghan Media Under the Taliban

Samiullah Mahdi

Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy (2021)

"Written just prior to the Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan, this new report from Shorenstein Center Fellow Samiullah Mahdi provides an overview of the media landscape in Afghanistan, and the threats to and opportunities for press freedom in the region." (Introduction)

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Connecting with Homeland: Media Consumption of Afghan Diaspora in India

Farooq Gowhar

International Journal of Communication and Media Science, volume 8, issue 2 (2021), 5 pp.

"Afghan presence in India dates back centuries. It exists in the form of goods, language, cultural and political influences, and other subtler yet significant forms. The influx of Afghan students, traders, and medical tourists in India, especially post the 2001 regime change in Afghanistan, has give ... more

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Slowing Transmission: Language Challenges in Community Radio Relay of COVID-19 Risk Communication in Afghanistan

Translators Without Borders (2021), 16 pp.

"In 2020 Internews launched the Rooted in Trust project to counter rumors and misinformation about COVID-19. They commissioned Translators without Borders (TWB) to map community radio stations and investigate the language and translation challenges community radio broadcasters face when relaying off ... icial COVID-19 risk communication to their audience. To better understand these challenges, TWB conducted a survey and interviews with 65 community radio broadcasters, representing a quarter of all community radio stations across Afghanistan. Based on our survey, we mapped community radio stations and the reach of each radio signal to estimate overall radio coverage across the country. Where possible, we triangulated our findings with data from Internews’ Information Ecosystem Assessment in Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat. Community radio stations remain an important source of information, especially for rural populations, less literate individuals, and in remote provinces. During public health emergencies, broadcasters can turn into health communicators and support the relay of risk communication, but they face several challenges. • Radio signals don’t cover all provinces: Based on the radio signals we were able to map, radio coverage doesn’t reach people equally across the country. Speakers of marginalized languages have especially limited access to radio broadcasts. Relative to population density, speakers of Turkmeni, Brahui, Balochi, and Uzbeki have especially limited access to radio broadcasts. • Few broadcasts are in languages other than Dari and Pashto: Dari and Pashto are the main broadcasting languages, but not everyone understands them. Broadcasts in other languages are largely limited to adverts, short audio clips, and sporadic language mixing in talk shows and call-in shows. Dedicated programs providing in-depth information in another language are rare. • Language barriers reduce the quality and timeliness of broadcasts: Community radio stations lack resources and translation capacity to broadcast in languages other than Dari or Pashto. As a result, some important information is delayed, and some is never broadcast at all. The quality and level of detail of broadcasts in other languages is also reduced. • Broadcasters face difficulties accessing available information: Most community radio stations have limited access to the internet and experience electricity failures. This makes accessing and validating available information on COVID 19 extremely difficult. Also, background information is often passed to broadcasters in English, but with limited internet access this information can’t readily be translated. • Information needs to be provided in plain language: Broadcasters don’t relay information that uses complicated language or technical and medical terms. New terms and complex new information around medical issues need to be rewritten and presented in plain language for a general audience. Yet community radio stations often can’t provide plain-language editing, so don’t relay more complex information." (Overview, page 1) more

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Afghanistan Media Landscape: Key Results

London: BBC Media Action (2021), 1 p.

"TV is the most popular media platform. Majority of TV viewers and radio listeners watch and listen to those media weekly. Urban, educated and younger people watch TV more than rural, less educated and older people. Men listen to radio and use internet more than women [...] A nationally representati ... more

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Post-regime-change Afghan and Iraqi media systems: Strategic ambivalence as technology of media governance

Mohammed A. Salih

Media, War & Conflict, volume 16, issue 2 (2021), pp. 228-245

"This article investigates the governance of post-US invasion Afghan and Iraqi media systems by analyzing provisions pertinent to public broadcasting, licensing, and defamation in 14 laws and policy documents in the two nations. The author argues that the results point to a regime of regulatory ambi ... more

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Let Free Media Thrive: Stories of Impact of the Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists

Paris: UNESCO (2021), 18 pp.

"The collection of stories presented here aims to highlight the impact of the MDP's (Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists) MDP’s actions over the course of this challenging year. Through testimonies from beneficiaries and partners who aspire to improve freedom o ... more

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In Their Own Words: Afghan Women Journalists Speak

Annie Philip, Laxmi Murthy, Yirmiyan Arthur, Jane Worthington, John Troughton

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ); Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI) (2021), 18 pp.

"Comprising several interviews with women journalists both inside and outside of Afghanistan, the report highlights the threats to life and livelihood imposed by the new regime. As the Taliban imposes new restrictions on the media, including a dress code on women journalists, there is continued resi ... more

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The Fall of Kabul: When Platforms Enable Propaganda

Marie Lamensch

Centre for International Governance Innovation, August 27 (2021)

"Social media companies face an increasingly urgent ethical dilemma about the use of their platforms by Taliban officials and supporters." (Introduction)

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Medium-Specific Threats for Journalists: Examples from Philippines, Afghanistan and Venezuela

Saumava Mitra, Marte Høiby, Mariateresa Garrido

Journalism Practice, volume 5, issue 1 (2021), pp. 80-98

"Between 2012 and 2016, UNESCO registered 530 deaths of journalists. They also published a statistic showing that television journalists were the most killed, followed by print media, radio and online journalists. Hinted in this statistics is the need to understand the relationship between the mediu ... more

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Hygiene and Behaviour Change Coalition Project: Reach and Engagement Survey Afghanistan

London: BBC Media Action (2021), 4 pp.

"BBC Media Action is helping to reduce the transmission of the coronavirus in Afghanistan by using a media campaign to encourage uptake of preventive behaviours. Informed by research the project’s media outputs aim to help reduce the transmission of the coronavirus by encouraging take up of the fo ... more

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Afghanistan: August 2021. A Tentative Reassessment of Cultural Foreign Policy and Civil Society Support

Asiem El Difraoui, Caspar Berges

Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) (2021), 22 pp.

"[...] If Afghanistan is to avoid a renewal of civil war, there is no viable alternative to Taliban rule and Taliban dialogue. Engagement with the Taliban in terms of urgently needed humanitarian aid opens avenues for cooperation in the field of cultural foreign policy and civil society support. Her ... e, the Taliban are especially open to support in the educational sector. Education, including for women, is a widespread demand in Afghanistan, even in the rural areas. As a member of civil society stressed, the Taliban are not ready to accept political activities but seem so far result-oriented in what concerns practical improvements for the Afghan population. Under seemingly non-political activities, for example competitions about daily life concerns like waste or water management, independent thinking and the respect of human rights can still be fostered. Generally, activities can be promoted with Afghan and Islamic references acceptable to the Taliban mindset. Fostering women’s rights, for example, can be done by giving the examples of the wives of the prophet Mohammed and of the relative freedoms of women in Saudi Arabia and Iran, who have more rights than those under the previous Taliban regime. As one participant states “the only progressive ideas which can be ingrained in Afghan society need to be somehow referring to internal cultural heritage Afghan and/or Islamic”. In this context, a lot of venues can be explored. Herat, for example was a major cultural centre over centuries. Afghans know also very little of the significance of historically important Islamic cities like Bukhara or Samarkand in neighbouring Uzbekistan, despite the fact that a sizable proportion of the Afghan population are Uzbek. Even more significant is the fact that Afghans who are very attached to their religion know very little of the achievement of the golden age Arabo-Islamic culture in science like mathematics, geography, astronomy, medicine or architecture or literature. There are also some classical art forms through which we can engage with the Taliban, such as poetry, as well as opportunities in contemporary comedy, where a certain criticism can be voiced and tolerated. The interplay of new and traditional media also provides unique opportunities in terms of education and human rights. Here DW-TV, Radio and internet activities can play an important role. Independent initiatives should also be promoted. These can offer considerable opportunities to connect regional civil society actors, which for one of the interviewees is one of the most effective ways of engagement “for example, feminist groups of neighbouring countries which supported feminist groups in Afghanistan”. (Conclusion, page 17) more

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A Roadmap to Protect Press Freedom During the Reconciliation Process

Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) (2020), 8 pp.

"This paper is written for the purpose of creating a roadmap to support press freedom and freedom of expression in the Afghan reconciliation process. Afghan Journalist Safety Committee (AJSC) prepared the document in collaboration with Afghan media representatives. The sole purpose of the roadmap is ... more

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Afghanistan Media Landscape

Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar

Maastricht: European Journalism Centre (2020)

"Afghanistan media has a history of 147 years. In 1873 the first ever paper, Shamsunahar, was established. The first radio transmitter was installed in 1920. The first TV broadcast happened in Kabul in 1978. The Internet was linked and used in Afghanistan during the Taliban period after 1996, althou ... gh it was not public and was used only by Taliban leaders. According to Nai Supporting Open Media, the leading Media Advocacy NGO in Afghanistan, there are 464 operational media in the country, which has the best media law in the region and one of the tops “Access to Information” bills in the world. But, since 2001, almost 120 journalists and media workers have been killed; more than 1550 violence cases against media have been registered and, except for a few of them, no prosecution processes have been launched for the cases. In practice access to information, despite having a good law, is one of the biggest challenges regarding freedom of expression, along with security and financial sustainability. The Taliban pose a great threat to media. Out of 120 journalists and media staff that have been killed since 2001, over 55 have been killed by the Taliban. On the other side, the Government of Afghanistan is yet to start addressing the violence cases against journalists allegedly perpetrated by governmental staff, particularly security forces. The government is not as supportive as it is stated to be by law and poses pressures which are among the challenges to freedom of expression. It has been known to set barriers to a free flow of information and to find various ways to prevent broadcasting stories about its failures. Financial challenges caused almost 240 media outlets to stop their activities in the country since 2014. Tens of radio stations and almost 6 TV stations are among the media outlets that have stopped their activities mainly because of financial problems. Although there are no specific studies that analyse public trust in media, the article “Media and government in the era of democracy” published on The Daily Afghanistan magazine shows the existence of a strong public trust in the media. When people are disappointed or have their rights infringed by a governmental entity, they turn to various media to make the problem known. That explains the popularity of media programmes that review cases and court hearings." (Overview) more

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Meta-Review of Evaluations of Development Assistance to Afghanistan, 2008-2018

Christoph Zürcher

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) (2020), 39 pp.

"Overall, one finding stands out: the international community has repeatedly overestimated its own capacity and the capacity of its Afghan partners to bring about rapid social change. What has worked best are modest, locally embedded projects with immediate, tangible benefits. What has rarely worked ... are complex projects aimed at building capacity and changing behaviour. More specifically, interventions in basic health and education, and in improving basic livelihoods, led to results. Interventions in building capacity for the administration, or in sectors such as the rule of law or gender, rarely worked. In reading these 148 reports, one also realizes that the international aid community is often not good at learning. Monitoring and evaluation systems are weak, and have hardly improved since 2002. Back in the early 2000s, many donors pointed out that, in order to achieve meaningful and sustainable development, more time was necessary. Fifteen years later, few sustainable results have been achieved, but many donors continue to suggest that better results will still require more time. Few donors appear to have changed their fundamental strategic approach, despite the fact that their own evaluations strongly suggest that many aid programs are neither e cient nor e ective in the Afghan context. In all fairness, the Afghan context is an incredibly challenging one, as these 148 reports vividly remind us on almost every page. The situation on the ground was and still is characterized by a lack of basic security; Afghan partners in government and in civil society lack basic capacities; many entrenched political actors have little interest in real reforms. Despite these challenging conditions, there was since the early days of the international engagement in Afghanistan tremendous political pressure on development actors to rush in and to provide quick results. An additional layer of complexity was added by the fact that the international engagement was from the beginning both a civilian and a military intervention, and planners in headquarters as well as practitioners on the ground had to learn how to cope with the task of civil-military cooperation. Under such circumstances, designing e ective aid programs is a herculean task." (Introduction, page 8) more

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Security challenges for journalists and the mass media in advancing free speech in war torn countries: The case of Afghanistan

Mohammad Tamim Sediqi, Farid Sufian Shuaib

Journal of Islamic Law, volume 16, issue 1 (2020), pp. 59-77

"The challenges faced by journalists and mass media in war torn countries are serious. The same could be said to be the case in Afghanistan. Though freedom of speech and of the mass media are among the on-going struggles of the Afghan people after the fall of the Taliban regime, it is worrying that ... more

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Psychological distress in Afghan journalists: A descriptive study

Jonas Osmann, Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, Anthony Feinstein

Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, volume 2, issue 3 (2020), pp. 115-123

"Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous places for journalists. There are, however, no data on the mental health of Afghan journalists covering conflict in their country. The study aims to determine the degree to which Afghan journalists are exposed to traumatic events, their perceptions ... more

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Media Culture in Transnational Asia: Convergences and Divergences

Hyesu Park (ed.)

New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press (2020), 241 pp.

"Media Culture in Transnational Asia: Convergences and Divergences examines contemporary media use within Asia, where over half of the world's population resides. The book addresses media use and practices by looking at the transnational exchanges of ideas, narratives, images, techniques, and values ... more

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Let Free Media Thrive: Stories of Impact of the Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists

Paris: UNESCO (2020), 19 pp.

"2019 has seen major achievements resulting from needs-based, and specifically-tailored support through the Multi-Donor Programme on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists (MDP). Actions building on ongoing work and others opening new avenues, have initiated substantial changes in favour of ... more

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"When the Battle's Lost and Won:" Narratives of Peace in the Afghan Film 'A War'

Axel Heck

Peace & Change, volume 45, issue 1 (2020), pp. 101-125

"This article examines the ways in which cinematic film underscores the latency of structural violence in its visualization of peace, specifically through the juxtaposition of the life world of the two main protagonists in the Danish film A War (2016): Captain Claus Pedersen who serves as a Danish s ... more