18 September, 2005
A new alliance of Afghan and international media organizations has come
together to improve coverage of key development issues in Afghanistan,
foster media industry sustainability and break the country’s regional
and international isolation.
The
project is a creative partnership of weekly print publications, radio
stations, Afghan and international wire services and journalism
training organizations. It is led by The Killid Group (TKG), with
project partners Pajhwok Afghan News, Inter Press Service (IPS), Sayara
Media and Communication and the Centre for International Journalism
(CIJ).
Together these
organizations have extensive experience in covering development and
gender issues and the local media expertise to work effectively in
Afghanistan.
Over the last
three years there has been extraordinary development of independent
Afghan media, but the sector is still fragile with too few qualified
journalists, weak management and financial instability.
According
to Project Coordinator Ricardo Grassi, contracted by TKG, the
partnership will consolidate the new media in Afghanistan by supporting
specialized reporting of development issues, developing long-term
training resources and improved media management skills.
“Hundreds
of journalists, journalism students, university professors and
independent media managers will benefit from the project” said Grassi.
“And our regional focus is a huge boost for media organizations and
journalism training outside of Kabul.”
Workshops
will be delivered on health education, environment, gender, human
rights, and general development issues. Trainees will use their new
expertise to report on these issues for print and radio in Afghanistan
and for international news wires. Training manuals will also follow
from the workshops with long-term benefits for Afghan universities.
The
project will also seek collaborative agreements with media in the
neighboring countries, and with intergovernmental, governmental and non
governmental organisations now active in Afghanistan.
The
project is funded by the European Commission (EC) under its media
development policies to improve the understanding of journalists on
gender issues, to encourage women to take an active role in media, and
to support national awareness and public action on development issues.
For more information please contact
Shahir A. Zahine 079341707 or email zahinesh@yahoo.com
Ricardo Grassi on 079 318 861 or email sic@ips.org
TKG (The Killid Group – www.thekillidgroup.com-
note: under construction) owns Radio Killid in Kabul and Radio Killid
Herat and the two independent national Afghan weeklies – Killid and
Mursal. Print distribution runs to 40 thousand copies and TKG’s Nye
Express is the only national company for the distribution of
independent press.
CIJ
is an Afghan journalist training entity with a team of experienced
Afghan journalists whose goals are to teach international journalism
standards, ethics and practical skills. CIJ also defends professional
journalists facing threats or harassment; writes and translates
international journalism books for universities and media
organizations; and offer professional courses for media officers.
Sayara Media and Communication (www.sayara-media.com)
is an Afghan-French organisation helping to develop a new generation of
journalists by supporting practical journalism training in the
universities of Kabul, Khost, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Mazar, Bamyan and
Herat. Under the Novice Journalism Training Program (NJTP) Sayara has
developed radio production and broadcasting facilities, computing and
Internet training centres, relationships with local and national radio
stations and the national Youth Voice network.
Pajhwok Afghan News
is the independent Afghan daily news agency. Since its launch in July
2004 it has become the main news provider in the country, reaching
almost all Afghan media, NGOs and the international community. Pajhwok
stories are available in Dari, Pashto and English.
IPS News Agency’s (www.ips.net)
mission is to report with independence on civil society, globalisation,
development and human rights. The news service reaches more than 500
print publications with an estimated readership of 200 million people.
IPS stories are also used by 1,000 radio stations and read on IPS
websites with more than two and a half million page views per month. In
its contribution to help strengthen media in Afghanistan, in 2004 IPS
entered into an agreement with Pajhwok Afghan News to broadcast special
coverage of the country as it moved forward after the presidential
elections. The stories could be found at a regularly updated special
IPS site dedicated to the process.
