Frud Bezhan Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 10, 2017 The Taliban and the Islamic State (IS) militant group might be foes on the battlefield in Afghanistan, but off it they are united against a common enemy: the Afghan media. Both extremist groups have threatened and deliberately targeted major TV and radio stations and their staff
Tolo News: Speaking at an event to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists in Kabul on Thursday, the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee (AJSC) said Afghanistan is the second worst country in the world for journalists. According to the journalist’s safety committee, 10 journalists have been killed so far this year and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 19, 2017 Zan TV is Afghanistan’s first and only TV station run by and for women. When it went on air in May, some Afghans doubted that it would succeed. Five months on, the station’s ratings are soaring. RFE/RL’s Frud Bezhan met some of the professionals who are braving the
VOA News July 25, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Ten journalists have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year in militant attacks plotted by the Taliban and Islamic State loyalists, a media monitoring group said. Violence during the first six months of 2017 also wounded 12 journalists, the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) said in a report
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).