October/December 2002
Vol. VIII, No.6/Vol. IX, No.1
Free Voices in Afghanistan
Ahmed Rashid "There are two conflicting needs for media," says Rashid. First, the central government needs to send out its messages of peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction. . . . Second, a parallel effort is needed to promote independent media: radio and TV stations, newspapers, and so on." |
There is nothing to read in Afghanistan," says Ahmed Rashid. With a dearth of radio and TV stations, an illiteracy rate of some eighty percent, and a nation decimated by war, Afghans ignore media development at their peril.
Rashid, a Pakistani journalist and best-selling author, described the prospects for free and independent media in Afghanistan at a Current Issues Briefing, organized with Internews, at the Institute on September 24. Richard Kauzlarich, director of the Institute's Special Initiative on the Muslim World, moderated the discussion.
"There are two conflicting needs for media," says Rashid. First, the central government needs to send out its messages of peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction. However, the government is hampered by the lack of necessary infrastructure. Second, a parallel effort is needed to promote independent media: radio and TV stations, newspapers, and so on. Rashid says progress has been slow and it is very difficult to find Afghan groups willing and able to set up radio stations and other media outlets.
Hamid Karzai's new central government has committed itself to free expression and free press. Bureaucratic support for starting newspapers and radio stations is limited but there is open encouragement for Afghans to become involved in media. "The trend certainly is very correct," says Rashid. "That now has to be exploited by Afghans and donors to the maximum."
Rashid described several challenges. A concept of independent journalism must be agreed on and inculcated in the culture. Also, the central government must be pressured to keep its promises on open media by enshrining freedom of expression and of the press in the constitution as it is being drafted.
Further, infrastructure requires huge investment. Everything from electricity to tape recorders to printing presses is needed. Reliable roads and transport are needed to build distribution networks. Rashid noted that in Kandahar and Mazar, cities of more than a million people each, there is not a single press. "How are you going to be able to influence people there if you are not going to have media, including some sort of print media?" asked Rashid.
There is also a political challenge in the form of conflict within the central government over factional control of government media. Karzai cannot tackle this challenge alone. Rashid says American pressure is needed to "allow a genuine central government-run TV and radio to project the view of the central government rather than the views of one faction.
"Extending the writ of the central government across the country needs media," added Rashid. Media plays an integral role in building peace and dealing with warlordism, ethnicity, and tribalism. Indeed, everything the Afghans and the international community are trying to do to rebuild Afghanistan requires media—literacy, elections, a new constitution, reconstruction, education, and healthcare.
Some progress has been made. Rashid himself founded the Open Media Fund for Afghanistan (OMFA), a small fund to promote print media. They are funding publications for children, women, and multiple language constituencies. OMFA funded the first satirical magazine in Afghanistan. "It's annoyed all the warlords," said Rashid, smiling.
Rashid believes that the development of a free and independent media in Afghanistan would have a large impact in the broader Muslim world, and especially in the Central Asia region, by setting a precedent for others to follow.
Other Institute Resources:
- Current Issues Briefing: Afghanistan Prospects for Free & Independent Media
