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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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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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Social Media and Disinformation in War Propaganda: How Afghan Government and the Taliban Use Twitter

Hazrat M. Bahar

Media Asia, volume 47, issue 1-2 (2020), pp. 34-46

"This study examines disinformation and propaganda in war in the age of information particularly through social media. It analyzes Twitter's posts of the Afghan government and the Taliban, from January to March 2018. For understanding disinformation, 952 tweets of both parties were crosschecked with ... 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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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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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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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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Reforming Journalism Education on a Tertiary Level in Afghanistan: Recommendations for a Dual Education Model

Kefa Hamidi, Alessandra Brüchner

Global Media Journal - German Edition, volume 10, issue 2 (2020), 20 pp.

"The importance of journalism’s role in society is beyond debate. Particularly in so-called fragile states, the social responsibility of media and journalism cannot be denied. Journalism education must account for the high level of skills required by journalists, and the ‘mediation’ function o ... more

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Dual Journalism Education: Recommendations for the Reform of Journalism Education at State Universities in Afghanistan — in Particular for the Faculty of Journalism and Public Communication at Nangarhar University

Arnulf Kutsch, Kefa Hamidi

Leipzig: University of Leipzig, Institute for Communication and Media Studies, Research Center Development Communication – Communication for Social Change (EC4SC) (2020), 289 pp.

"A dual training programme for professional journalism, as has long been practised in various European and non-European countries, does not yet exist in Afghanistan. It aims to combine theory and simulation of practice at institutes of tertiary education through a vocational training course with an ... more

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The relationship between social media addiction and depression: A quantitative study among university students in Khost, Afghanistan

Rahmatullah Haand, Zhao Shuwang

International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, volume 22, issue 1 (2020), pp. 780–786

"This study examined the relationship between social media addiction and depression among students of the universities in Khost province of Afghanistan. Stratified random sampling was used and a 46-items self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 384 students of three universities Shaikh Zay ... 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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Fear, trauma and local journalists: Cross-border lessons in psychosocial support for journalists

Michelle Betz, Paul Beighley

International Media Support (IMS) (2019), 16 pp.

"95 per cent of journalists killed in armed conflict are locally based journalists. While there has been increasing focus on the physical and digital safety issues these journalists face, there has been less attention towards the need for psychosocial support. Addressing psychosocial needs of local ... more

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Journalism and Journalism Education in Developing Countries
Deep Insights

Beatrice Dernbach, Beate Illg (eds.)

Manipal, Kanartaka: Manipal Universal Press (2019), vi, 250 pp.

"This book provides an international perspective on the different aspects of journalism – the situation in which journalists work, their working conditions, educational backgrounds, struggles and successes. It is aimed at an international public interested in the field of journalism and freedom of ... 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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Truth Vs Misinformation: The Collective Push Back. South Asia Press Freedom Report 2018-19

International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) (2019), 83 pp.

"In 2018, South Asia was declared by the IFJ as the most deadly region in the world for media workers, which most brutally demonstrates the reality faced by far too many in the industry. Nowhere was this more acutely felt than Afghanistan with eight journalists and four other media workers killed, a ... 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

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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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Safety culture changing visual representations of wars? The case of Afghanistan

Saumava Mitra

Conflict & Communication Online, volume 18, issue 1 (2019), 13 pp.

"In international conflict correspondence safety mechanisms are unequally employed to protect local news-staffs in contrast to international staffs. Arguably, this has had the greatest impact on image production from war zones, exposing local photojournalists to increased dangers. But it also raises ... more