Gulf News: Zeerak the bespectacled orange muppet is the latest innovation from Sesame Street in Afghanistan: a children’s TV character who reveres his educated older sister, brought on to screens to show a new generation that a woman’s place is beyond the home. Click here to read more (external link).
LA Times: Mohammad Mohaqeq has been doing something unusual in Afghan politics: posting pictures of wife Waheeda on social media. In one recent image, the senior government official poses beside her and their 7-year-old daughter, Hadiya, in front of a crystal-clear lake in the northern province of Bamian. Click here to read more (external link).
The Guardian (UK): When Radio Shaista goes silent, you know the Taliban are close. The female-run radio station was looted and wrecked when the group captured Kunduz, Afghanistan’s embattled northern city, in 2015, sending journalists fleeing. Even after the Taliban were routed, female journalists have been on guard, if they ever returned, that is. Zarghoona Hassan,
Reuters: Zan TV (“Women’s TV”) launches on Sunday (May 21) with an all-female staff of presenters and producers, following a high-profile marketing campaign on billboards in Kabul and on social media. Click here to read more (external link).
Press TV May 17, 2017 Afghan security forces have engaged three gunmen who have attacked a state radio and television building in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province. The gunmen began the Wednesday attack by detonating a bomb and managed to enter the state-run radio and television building in the provincial capital Jalalabad. The building is close to
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Afghanistan is also among the states classified as “red” for press freedom. RSF says that “the courageous efforts” by Afghan journalists to fulfill their reporting mission are frustrated by constant security threats posed by the Taliban and Islamic State extremists. Click here to read more (external link).
Tolo News: President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday addressed a press conference in Kabul after a week-long tour to the Asia-Pacific region and briefed journalists on the outcomes of his visit to Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. However, Ghani took questions from journalists but refused to respond to a question by TOLOnews reporter Sharif Amiri about rule of
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 8, 2017 Reporters Without Borders has launched a center to protect women journalists in Afghanistan, the second-most dangerous country for female reporters after Syria. The center will lobby for better working conditions and rights for women reporters, including combating discrimination in the workplace. It will also work to change perceptions
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 19, 2017 The European Union is urging all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan to “do their utmost” to protect press reporters,after a media watchdog said 2016 was the country’s “bloodiest year for journalists and media” in history. “Freedom of the Media is key to any democracy — critical media
Reuters: Filmmaker Hassan Fazili fled Afghanistan last year in search of a home where he could speak freely after the Taliban threatened him with death over one of his movies. But Fazili, who moved to Serbia, will nevertheless be voiceless at a German film festival next week, when his work will be screened but he cannot