Afghanistan IKM Leipzig

The Afghanistan Special Collection is part of the programme on the Media System and Public Spheres of Afghanistan. The Centre for Development Communication (C4DC) at the Institute for Communication and Media Studies (IKM) at Leipzig University (Germany) has been running this programme since 2022. The Center engages in research, teaching, and knowledge transfer and aims to develop sound insights and practical approaches for a more equitable and sustainable society. This Special Collection is especially strong on the analysis of the Afghan media ecosystem, safety threats to journalists, and foreign media assistance. The collection is curated by Hazrat Bahar and Kefa Hamidi.

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Afghanistan-Pakistan Media Affairs: Challenges and Opportunities

Rahimullah Yusufzai

Islamabad: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2019), 34 pp.

"The media in Afghanistan and Pakistan has never been so large, vibrant and independent. It has attained unimaginable power and become a key player in politics and other walks of life. Media is the fourth pillar of the state and democracy in both Afghanistan and Pakistan in the true sense of the wor ... more

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Between the White House and the Kremlin: A Comparative Analysis of Afghan and Tajik Media

Wazhmah Osman

International Journal of Communication, volume 13 (2019), pp. 619-641

"In their postwar, postindependence, and post-Soviet moments, why did two neighbors, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, who share cultural, linguistic, and historical similarities, take radically divergent paths in the development of their mass media, public sphere, and democracy? In this article, I argue ... more

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Media Representations and Refugees Crises: Framing of Afghan Refugees in Mainstream Print Media of Pakistan

Sumera Batool

Pakistan Social Sciences Review, volume 3, issue 1 (2019), pp. 461-473

"The main objective of the study is to analyze the framing of Afghan refugees in print media of Pakistan and attempts to generate a substantial body of information about the role of Pakistani media in this regard and presents the issues and problems of afghan refugees after the operation of Zarb-e- ... more

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Afghan journalists in a balancing act: Coping with deteriorating safety

Elisabeth Eide, Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, Hasina Shirzad

Conflict & Communication Online, volume 18, issue 1 (2019), 16 pp.

"Afghan journalists have been experiencing a deteriorating situation, due to a multitude of threats. They operate in a situation of low popular literacy, as well as low media literacy. Threats from Taliban and other insurgents cause many journalists to live in constant fear. This article is based on ... more

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Supporting Safety of Journalists in Afghanistan: An Assessment Based on UNESCO's Journalists' Safety Indicators

Ilias Alami, Nangyalay Tanai, Mahmood Mobarez

Paris: UNESCO; International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) (2019), 129 pp.

"This report maps threats against journalists in Afghanistan between January and December 2017. Divided into five key indicator categories, the report first provides an overview of the safety situation of journalists in Afghanistan; followed by the discussion of the roles and responses of State and ... more

Women Empowerment: A Study of Media and its Role in Empowerment of Afghan’s Women

Mostafa Hassanzadeh

Indian Journal of Science and Technology, volume 11, issue 23 (2018), pp. 1-8

"During the last fourteen years, Afghan media has played a significant role in empowering women and they still do. Media has a crucial responsibility in promoting women’s participation in society. It has the power to spread messages and raise awareness for the challenges women face. Most important ... more

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How Has Media Programming Supported Polio Eradication?

Sanjib Saha

London: BBC Media Action (2018), 11 pp.

"Since 2013, BBC Media Action has been working closely with Unicef to support polio eradication. Through mass media programming – radio magazine shows and drama, and radio and TV public service announcements (PSAs) – it has sought to break down barriers to immunising against polio and other chil ... more

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Brought to You by Foreigners, Warlords, and Local Activists: TV and the Afghan Culture Wars

Wazhmah Osman

In: Modern Afghanistan: The Impact of 40 Years of War

M. Nazif Shahrani (ed.)

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press (2018), pp. 149-176

"Without a doubt, the combined power of the public arena and broadcast media is a very efective social tool for collective action in Afghanistan. Yet there are serious limits to both the media’s self-advocacy and the public’s strong and unwavering support. Te media-related crimes and murders men ... tioned in this chapter are a few of the many. Yet no arrests are made and no one is prosecuted in most of these cases. Zoorawarah can continue to censor media makers with impunity and without fears of retribution. Broadcasting the incidents of violence and censorship against media personnel and the media writ large, as well as the subsequent protests and production of investigative and expository programs is indeed generative in creating dialogue and raising awareness about media rights and the important role of a free media in a society, but it is clearly not enough. Tus far, we have seen examples of two types of potential cultural imperialism. By aggressively promoting and offering their own media products, programs, and formats, at little or no cost, the argument can be made that foreign countries are impeding the development of Afghanistan’s own media industry, artistry, and media crafts. Additionally, we have seen examples of censorship, both from endogenous and exogenous forces, ranging from pressuring the government to ban programming or directly pressuring producers to do so. In extreme cases, we have seen an egregious third form of censorship becoming prevalent in Afghanistan. High-level media personnel and wealthy media owners who are ofen prominent public fgures, such as politicians, warlords, drug lords, religious leaders, and businessmen, hire body guards and live behind gated fortress mansions, while low-level television personalities and reporters are subjected to threats, physical attacks, and death for providing people with programming they want to watch and which gives them a platform to raise their voices. Hence, it is the mid- and low-level media professionals, not the owners of the television stations they work for nor the foreign governments that are the patrons of the stations, who bear the ultimate burden of media freedom and reform in Afghanistan. Caught between warring ideologies that range from Islamist to commercial to “developmentalist,” as brave as these Afghan media personalities and journalists are, and despite their high media a profile, their low socioeconomic status leaves them vulnerable to abuse and possible death." (Conclusion, page 168-169) more

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Afghan Media Frame & US Narratives. Trump’s Afghanistan Policy: How Afghan Mainstream Media Borrowed Official US Narratives to Frame the Myth of Peace

Sher Baz Khan, Qaisar Khan

JPDC, volume 2, issue 1 (2018), pp. 104-127

"This study draws from scholarship in framing theory and mediated collective memories for the analysis of the adoption of official narratives of US President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan policy as ready-made news frames by Afghanistan’s Tolo TV’s popular current affairs program as Tawde Khabare ... more

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Japan's International Democracy Assistance as Soft Power: Neoclassical Realist Analysis

Maiko Ichihara

London; New York: Routledge (2018), xiii, 149 pp.

"Most of Japan's civil society assistance targets media. JICA's policy guideline on peace-building assistance regards media assistance as one of the target categories of Japan's democracy assistance (Japanese International Cooperation Agency JICA, 2009). The International Peace Cooperation Council ( ... Kokusai Heiwa Kyoryoku Kondankai), which was established within the Cabinet Office. recommended boosting Japan's media assistance in its report published in December 2002 (Council on International Peace Cooperation 2002, 42). Japan has assisted media through grants, technical assistance, expert dispatch, expert training, and the provision of materials related to broadcasting (JICA 20046, 50). Japan has provided media assistance mainly to TV and radio stations. According to Masakazu Sakashita (2006, 122), 127 TV media assistance projects and 56 radio assistance projects had been conducted by September 2005, while Japan has never provided media assistance to print media such as newspapers and magazines. This is because Japan regards telecommunication and broadcasting technology as its comparative advantage and thus focuses on those projects that require it. Indeed, the chief characteristic of Japan's media assistance is that it focuses on facilities such as information and telecommunication networks instead of media content. Project contents include the improvement of production capacity and broadcasting skills, repair of ground communication systems, and provision of studio equipment. Seminars are provided to teach how to use and maintain the equipment provided through such projects as well (JICA 20046, 50). Expert training has been conducted for countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka in addition to broadcasting infrastructure assistance, which provided training for program production. However, this training tends to be a mere supplement to broadcasting in frastructure assistance projects (Sakashita 2006, 122). Within JICA, while it is the former Public Policy Department and the current Industrial Development and Public Policy Division that is in charge of democrac y assistance, the Information and Telecommunication Technology Division is in charge of media assistance. This shows that Japan's media assistance is conducted mainly as broadcasting technical assistance rather than democracy assistance, as Sakashita (2006, 122) notes. Japan's media assistance to Afghanistan in 2002 helped broadcast the country's Loya Jirga, or national assembly, on TV via satellite. Its aim was to show the discussion at the national assembly and the process of choosing the interim president of the country to increase the legitimacy of the new administration (JICA 2004a). The political character of this assistance project was distinct compared with Japan's media assistance until then. However, the project assisted only a state hroadcasting station and did not intend to Increase the capacity of primate media's watchdog functions. In this sense, the actual content of this assistance project was state, not civil society assistance. In addition, the contents of this assistance were to upgrade broadcasting in frastructure and provide equipment and training on how to use the equipment. No assistance was provided in terms of the content of the broadcasting. No expert on free and fair broadcasting was included in its preliminary study group, and all the experts were broadcasting technical specialists, which shows the weakness of Japan's interest in supporting the role of media in democracy (JICA 2002). The project document did not set contribution to democracy as an evaluation criterion of the project, either (Sakashita 2006, 124)." (Pages 51-53) more

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Afghan Information Ecosystems: A Design Research Approach

Internews; Sayara Research (2017), 82 pp.

"Afghanistan has made great strides in establishing media and communications outlets. However, very little is known about the ways in which Afghans actually engage in information exchange. To inform work with the media and effectively enhance access to information in Afghanistan, Internews commissio ... more

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Adoptability and acceptability of peace journalism among Afghan photojournalists: Lessons for peace journalism training in conflict-affected countries

Saumava Mitra

Journalism Education, volume 6, issue 2 (2017), pp. 17-27

"In this article, I seek to inform Peace Journalism (PJ) education and training in conflict-affected countries in particular. Based on a case study of the professional experiences of Afghan photojournalists, I offer insights into the acceptability and adoptability of PJ practice by journalists from ... more

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Das Theater der Unterdrückten und Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung in Afghanistan: Kollektive Ermächtigung und neue Dependenzen

Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn

Peripherie, volume 37, issue 1 (2017), pp. 52-75

"Seit März 2007 organisieren lokale und internationale Aktivist*innen in verschiedenen Teilen Afghanistans beinah täglich Aktivitäten mit den unterschiedlichen Techniken des Theaters der Unterdrückten (TdU) des Brasilianers Augusto Boal (1931-2009) sowie anderen emanzipatorischen Theatermethoden ... more

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Taliban Narratives: The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict
Deep Insights

Thomas H. Johnson

London: Hurst (2017), xxxvi, 376 pp.

"Why has the Taliban been so much more effective in presenting messages that resonate with the Afghan population than the United States, the Afghan Government and their allies? This book, based on years of field research and the assessment of hundreds of original source materials, examines the infor ... more

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From a Refugee Perspective: Discourse of Arabic Speaking and Afghan Refugees and Migrants on Social Media from March to December 2016

UNHCR (2017), 46 pp.

"The main thing I really liked about this project is that UNHCR invested the resources for proper qualitative social media monitoring, as opposed to the purely quantitative analyses that we see so often and which rarely go beyond keyword counting. To complement the social media information, the team ... more

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Local Radio in Afghanistan: A Sustainability Assessment

Nathalie Paarlberg, Kamran Parwana, Eric Davin et al.

Altai Consulting; Internews (2017), 136 pp.

"This study assesses the role and impact of this local radio station network as well as its sustainability prospects, focusing on four pillars of sustainability in particular: Financial sustainability: at a minimum, radio stations need to be able to support their activities, and ideally enjoy some s ... more

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Defending Journalism: How National Mechanisms Can Protect Journalists and Address the Issue of Impunity. A Comparative Analysis of Practices in Seven Countries
Deep Insights

Elisabeth Witchel, Esben Q. Harboe (eds.)

International Media Support (IMS) (2017), 250 pp.

"The research documents how, despite immense ongoing challenges, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal and Pakistan, some important advances have been made to develop joint structures and innovative approaches to defend the practice of journalism. It examines the long road Colombia has followed in the establi ... more

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Adoptability and Acceptability of Peace Journalism Among Afghan Photojournalists: Lessons for Peace Journalism Training in Conflict-Affected Countries

Saumava Mitra

Journal of the Association for Journalism Education, volume 6, issue 2 (2017), pp. 17-27

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Curated Stories: The Uses and Misuses of Storytelling

Sujatha Fernandes

New York: Oxford University Press (2017), xii, 212 pp.

"Fernandes considers the rise of storytelling alongside the broader shift to neoliberal, free-market economies. She argues that stories have been reconfigured to promote entrepreneurial self-making and restructured as easily digestible soundbites mobilized toward utilitarian ends. Fernandes roams th ... more

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A Country without Mercy: Afghan Journalists Caught in Crossfires

Elisabeth Eide

In: The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), pp. 81-86

"In the last Afghan solar year (22 March 2015 – 21 March 2016), twelve journalists and media workers were killed, exceeding any previous year in recent history. In June 2016, the US photographer David Gilkey and his interpreter, journalist Zabihullah Tamanna, were killed in a Taliban attack in Maj ... more

Taliban Narratives: The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict Deep Insights

Defending Journalism: How National Mechanisms Can Protect Journalists and Address the Issue of Impunity. A Comparative Analysis of Practices in Seven Countries Deep Insights

Taliban Narratives: The Use and Power of Stories in the Afghanistan Conflict
Deep Insights

Defending Journalism: How National Mechanisms Can Protect Journalists and Address the Issue of Impunity. A Comparative Analysis of Practices in Seven Countries
Deep Insights