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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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Journalism: 'A Peacekeeping Agent' at the Time of Conflict

Yasemin Giritli Inceoglu, Tirse Erbaysal Filibeli (eds.)

Boston: Brill (2019), xxii, 217 pp.

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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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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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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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Afghanistan Media Landscape

Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar

Maastricht: European Journalism Centre (2018)

"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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Digital Asia

Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2018), 40 pp.

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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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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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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New Fronts, Brave Voices: Press Freedom in South Asia 2016-17

Laxmi Murthy (ed.)

New Delhi: International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific; South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN) (2017), 113 pp.

"South Asia is a region of enormous contrasts, but from the vastness of India to tiny and placid Bhutan, journalism faces several problems in common. The safety situation has improved in some of the countries that were racked by internal strife, but journalists remain at acute risk in India and Paki ... 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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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

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Medien - Frauen - Perspektiven

Weltzeit (Deutsche Welle), issue 3 (2017), pp. 10-29

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Adoption and Impact of OER in the Global South

Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams, Patricia B. Arinto (eds.)

Cape Town; Ottawa: African Minds; Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D); International Development Research Centre (IDRC) (2017), xiii, 592 pp.

"Education in the Global South faces several key interrelated challenges, for which Open Educational Resources (OER) are seen to be part of the solution. These challenges include: unequal access to education; variable quality of educational resources, teaching, and student performance; and increasin ... 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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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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The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Deep Insights

Ulla Carlsson, Reeta Pöyhtäri (eds.)

Göteborg: Nordicom (2017), 363 pp.

"To support joint efforts to protect journalism, there is a growing need for research-based knowledge. Acknowledging this need, the aim of this publication is to highlight and fuel journalist safety as a field of research, to encourage worldwide participation, as well as to inspire further dialogues ... 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

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

The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression Deep Insights

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

The Assault on Journalism. Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression
Deep Insights