Press Releases

Internews Opens a Radio Center at Pakistan’s Peshawar University

Internews Pakistan Before and after shots of the new radio training facility set up by Internews at Peshawar University in Pakistan.

(March 7, 2005) Peshawar University has a new state-of-the-art training facility that is being used to produce a variety of radio programs for broadcast around the region. The facility, established by Internews, will also be used to conduct trainings for professional journalists from both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The center – the first of its kind in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) – includes a radio production studio and a computer laboratory.

The center will be used to produce three separate radio programs – a magazine-style show produced by students, a Pashto-language women’s program and a program of interest to Pakistanis and Afghans living in the border region. The programs will be broadcast on local radio stations and offered to listener groups on CDs and cassettes.

The student program, Da Nan Khabara (Talk of the Day), has recently begun broadcasting on Campus Radio, Peshawar. This bi-weekly program, run by students and supervised by Internews, has already covered a wide variety of issues including the Asian tsunami, child labor in NWFP, U.S. higher education assistance to Pakistani students and health problems in the region, including hepatitis.

“The program has given me the confidence to research and package information in a professional way,” said Ahmadullah Habibi, one of the students working on the program.

The training facility is funded by USAID and the US State Department. It complements Peshawar University’s campus radio station, which Internews helped to build last year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

John Butt, Project Director, Internews Afghanistan Pakistan Cross Border Training and Information Exchange

Lisa Upton, Internews Pakistan Resident Advisor

Adnan Rehmat, Internews Pakistan Country Director