May 15, 2009

"Not a Job for the Faint of Heart"

Local Reporting in Pakistan and Afghanistan

As headlines around the world focus on the seemingly intractable security and political crises in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a new cast of thousands of media professionals and volunteers are working hard to give voice to people most affected by these conflicts. Internews has operated in Afghanistan since 2002 and in Pakistan since 2003 to support local, independent media, including building a network of 35 locally owned community radio stations around Afghanistan, mentoring over 400 journalists across Pakistan including in the tribal regions, and seeding and supporting new media training and rights organizations.
 
In this newsletter, Internews’ Aurangzaib Khan talks about the challenges and surprising successes, amid escalating conflict and humanitarian crises, of new local media in Pakistan’s embattled border region with Afghanistan. Media advocacy expert Tasneem Ahmar shares the motivation for her decade-long struggle to improve media coverage of women in Pakistan, while the Internews-supported national radio programming service for Afghanistan, Salam Watandar, launches a successful campaign to get Afghan women to run for elected office. Another article sketches out the logistical hurdles Internews faced recently in improving broadcast transmissions for Afghanistan’s remote Western Farah province, requiring 1200 donkey trips up a rocky mountainside. Producing quality media in the Pakistan and Afghan environments is tough, to say the least, but journalists here are equal to the challenge.

In This Issue:

• Pakistan
  • Challenges−and Signs of Hope−for Media in the Tribal Regions
  • Helping Pakistani Women Have Their Say
• Afghanistan
  • Radio Programming Inspires Afghan Women to Run for Office
  • Extending the Airwaves in Remote Farah Province
  • Risk Management, Code of Ethics, Elections and More

“Between the Devil and the Ditch”

Challenges−and Signs of Hope−for Media in the Tribal Regions

"Reporting on a region where the fate of the international ‘war on terror’ will be decided is not a job for the faint of heart." So says Aurangzaib Khan, Manager of Media Development for Internews based in Peshawar, Pakistan. In the following interview, Khan, a respected journalist in his own right, discusses the many obstacles for local journalists based in and around Pakistan’s restive tribal regions—and shares some surprising signs of progress. (More)

A Woman’s Place Is in the Council Chambers

Radio Programming Inspires Afghan Women to Run for Office

Alarmed by an Independent Election Commission report on May 1 that not a single female candidate had registered for provincial council elections in eight provinces, with the registration deadline just a week later, the Internews-funded radio programming service Salam Watandar quickly produced a number of stories and interviews to highlight the issue. In addition, Salam Watandar created an outreach campaign targeting potential female candidates in five key provinces. The message told women that it was their duty to run for provincial council. (More)

Extending the Airwaves in Remote Farah Province

Residents of Farah province in far western Afghanistan started getting new programming on their radios and televisions this month, thanks to a joint effort of Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), Internews, USAID...and some very hardy donkeys. (More)

More Media News from Internews in Afghanistan

• Internews Launches Risk Management Toolkit for Radio Stations
• Over 100 Reporters Benefit from Internews’ Voter Registration Training
• Code of Ethics Developed for Afghan Journalists
• Afghan Journalists Accept Press Freedom Award from Committee to Protect Journalists

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