January 2008

Internews Afghanistan

Dear Friend,

This e-newsletter is intended to share with you some of the challenges and successes facing the development of Afghan media, and to let our partners and colleagues know about our current projects.

I’m honoured to join Internews as the new Country Director in Afghanistan, replacing Jan McArthur who, in three years, made great strides to consolidate Internews’ work in Afghanistan.

I am already very impressed by the progress that Internews has made in developing Afghanistan’s fledgling independent media. I look forward to working with you in 2008!

Warm regards,

Vanessa Johanson
Afghanistan Country Director
Internews Network

Afghan Radio Station Torched by Taliban is Back on Air

After four months of silence on the radio waves of Wardak province, Radio Yawali Ghag is now back on air. As the only independent media in the area, Radio Yawali Ghag is a key source of information for the local people. Internews Country Director Vanessa Johanson noted, "The enthusiasm of the station staff and community in Wardak to rebuild their station in cooperation with Internews is one indication that even in the most difficult conflict situations radio is a priority, indeed a necessity." (Full Story)

The Son of Nai

Mujeeb Khalwatagar is executive director of Nai, Supporting Open Media in Afghansitan. Founded in 2004 by Internews Network, the Afghan media development NGO currently trains some 600 Afghan journalists every year at its facility in Kabul. Khalwatager’s love of journalism started early: as a boy he dressed up in his father’s tie and interviewed himself in the mirror.

Before heading Nai, he worked as a reporter and then as News and Current Affairs Editor at Salaam Watander, where he interviewed everyone from shopkeepers and farmers to President Hamid Karzai. He spoke with Internews Program Associate Morgan Williams.

Everyone in this world has responsibility—towards their family, towards their country, towards humanity. Because I have some media skills, I think my responsibility is to work for the development of media, and that’s why I work so hard. My family and friends call me “The son of Nai.” It means that Nai is my family and Nai is my life.

On a typical day at Nai I arrive at the office at around 730am and leave to go home at around 8pm. There is no pressure on me to stay late, it is love that makes me stay late into the evening.

The first thing I do is meet with my managers and help them with any challenges.  We discuss their activities and I make sure that I am aware of all the projects that they are working on.

From 9 – 11am I observe the classes that are being taught at Nai. Every day our trainers train up to 55 journalists in a range of subjects such as basic and advanced journalism, technical and computer skills and media law.  We have also recently established a training radio that students can use to practice the skills they learn in our classes. I often spend an hour each day listening to the students' work and giving them feedback and tips as they begin to produce their own programs.

At lunch I chat and laugh with my colleagues just to refresh myself and everyone else so we can continue to work hard for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon I try to oversee the journalism training as much as I can. I make sure that the level of training continues to be at a standard that Nai can be proud of.

For the rest of the day I deal with a whole range of issues, from financial to administrative. We also spend time brainstorming new ideas and looking at different ways of increasing the capacity of the Afghan media.

I see that Afghan journalists face many challenges—security threats, government pressure to limit press freedom, and a lack of resources—it will be awhile before Afghanistan’s media can sustain themselves without international assistance. The media play a key role in Afghanistan’s development, but because the country is so unstable, the media are still very fragile.

By training our students in the international standards of journalism, my hope is to see journalists from Nai being as highly respected as journalists from other countries, doing their best and serving their country.

Nai is funded by the US Agency for International Development through a subgrant from Internews Network as well as grants from UNESCO, UNIFEM, UNDP, Counterpart International and the European Commission.

Latest News from Internews Afghanistan

• On a trip to Laghman Province, Internews technical manager Mirkhalilullah Sadat and driver Nizamudeen were stopped at gunpoint by bandits, beaten, and told never to come back. They have since returned to the area to install a radio repeater. Thanks to the bravery of our staff, listeners in the Aishling district can now hear quality news and cultural programming from Salaam Watandar, one of the few sources of outside information for people in the region.
• Nai will begin to conduct basic and advanced journalism training in December for staff from three new stations in Badakhshan. Nai will follow this Kabul-based training with field visits to each station to carry out management and business development workshops.
• The process to renew all Internews’ existing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with partner stations is proceeding well.
• Tanin Ltd added 10 new stations to its radio distribution network, further enhancing their coverage of the country.
• The international NGO Equal Access is designing a curriculum for producing a magazine show, with an emphasis on how to write a drama for radio. Internews will then train journalism students from Herat, Mazar, Khost and Bamiyan in this topic. The students’ final program will be broadcast nationally on Salaam Watandar.