edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Media LandscapeThe development of Afghanistan’s media landscape as one ofthe rays of hope needs to be assessed in a more detailed manner.A close look at the history of the Afghan media showsthat this country never had a tradition of free, impartial, andwidespread media. The first newspaper was established 140years ago by the former king Amir Sher Ali Khan and its onlyfunction was to praise the king’s policy and inform the king’scourt about decisions and agreements. Afghanistan was farfrom having a mass media able to inform a great part of thepopulation, which was and still is illiterate and lives in remoteareas. The focus was much on the capital Kabul and on thosein power ever since.When in 1928 the first radio station, Radio Kabul, was establishedby the former King Amanullah Khan, only the citizens ofKabul were able to receive the radio program. At that time theking recognized the power of the new medium to inform hispeople all over the country. By the 1940s, people in many moreparts of the country could listen to the state broadcaster.With the help of the Soviets in 1976 the new medium televisionwas introduced to Afghanistan’s media landscape. Like RadioKabul, television was initially a privilege that only Kabul’scitizens could benefit from. Later many more large cities acrossAfghanistan were able to receive the television broadcaster.Afghanistan’s media landscape has experienced variousrelevant transformation steps since the end of 2001. UnderTaliban rule from 1996 to 2001 television was prohibited,many antennas and transmitters were destroyed and the onlyradio station allowed was Radio Shariat run by the Taliban. InNovember 2001 RTA’s broadcasting restarted with the help ofthe international community in the capital Kabul. The UNES-CO helped to reconstruct the destroyed premises and rebuildingthe infrastructure of RTA and the state-owned newsagency, Bakhtar News. Since then the media landscape hasexperienced incredible growth: from one non-governmentalradio station in 2002 (Sulh) to over 75 terrestrial televisionchannels, 175 FM radio stations and 800 regular publications(in September 2010). 5Print media in Afghanistan cannot be defined as mass mediasince the large majority of the population does not have accessto daily newspapers or weekly magazines and the vast majorityis not able to read. Internet as well still plays a marginalrole for the majority of the rural population. 6Despite the liberties and possibilities for media actors tolaunch media outlets and to produce content, pressure, selfcensorship,insecurity, and monetary problems are also part ofjournalists’ daily lives. 7 Afghanistan has a broad mixture of differentmedia and the urban population has the choice betweenlots of different sources of information which the rural populationdoes not have. Therefore RTA plays an important role sinceit is the only Afghan source for a large part of the population.Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA)Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) consists of television (RTA)and radio (Radio Afghanistan) at the national level. RTA is theonly Afghan channel that operates as a network of local teams,with branches in almost every province. It produces content inthe most common languages Pashto and Dari and the minoritylanguages Uzbek, Tajik, Balochi, and Pashai. According tothe law RTA is obliged to the public which means that it has torepresent all parts of the country and all the different groupsin Afghan society. As a multi-ethnic country where many differentlanguages are spoken, the respective proportion of programmingin the different languages is a sensitive issue. Dariand Pashto are the official languages spoken by the majority inAfghanistan. The ways of mixing languages are varied and debatable,for example, combining the two languages with twohosts in one program or using separate programs from thesame outlet or using different outlets. Some TV channels havepositioned themselves to address specific audiences based ona single language.Radio Afghanistan returned in November 2001 whenthe Taliban left Kabul and the Northern Alliance forces tookcontrol of the station. The nationwide broadcasting beganin early June 2002 with USAID’s technical and financial support.A satellite terminal was installed at Radio Afghanistan,linking Radio Afghanistan’s signal to shortwave transmittersthat broadcast the station’s programs throughout Afghanistanfor a few hours each day. 8 The television program began a fewweeks later, offering three hours of programming a day. The localbranches are required to broadcast Kabul RTA from 7-9 p.m.,and also to produce local content adapted to the local environment(in terms of language, for instance). 9RTA is the broadcaster with the largest infrastructure, with22 radio transmitters all over the country covering the largercities in the provinces as well as the rural areas. It has ten TVtransmitters with the provincial coverage areas: Faizabad,Ghazni, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Mazar, Pul-e-Khumri, Qunduz,Taloqan, and Sheberghan. 10 There is a discrepancy betweenthe situation in the capital studio and the provincial studios.In many provinces the studios are declining and run by a fewemployees who are not qualified.It is difficult to get valid information about the outlet’sstrategy and goals since there are no strategy papers or guidelinesavailable. According to the Altai study conducted in 2010,RTA’s intended goals are strengthening national unity, promotinga sense of civic responsibility, encouraging the youthand furthering sports. 11 Zarin Anzor, RTA’s General Directordescribes RTA as an important “national institution which reflectsthe people’s needs and their views better than the privatemedia do.” 12RTA does rather well in the audience survey from 2010(ranking third), although the quality of what is produced byRTA leaves a lot to be desired and lies behind the best privatechannels. 13 As a result the audience share never exceeds 10 per-38