Afghan Media Centres Take Flight
| Publisher | Institute for War and Peace Reporting |
| Publication Date | 21 January 2015 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | ARR Issue 508 |
| Cite as | Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Afghan Media Centres Take Flight, 21 January 2015, ARR Issue 508, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/54c2324a4.html [accessed 28 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Journalists outside the Afghan capital often encounter basic technological obstacles when working on reporting assignments. To help address the challenges, IWPR has spent the last three years supporting media centres in the Uruzgan and Nangarhar provinces.
The assistance programme ended this month with the formal handover of equipment supplied to the two media centres, including computers, projectors, scanners, printers, cameras, and satellite internet devices, as well as office furniture and air-conditioners.
Uruzgan is a restive and underdeveloped province in the mountains north of Helmand, and having a media centre there has provided basic communications that did not exist before. Journalists used to have to beg local NGOs to let them send news stories to Kabul and abroad. Now they can come to the centre and use the technology there, as well as meeting up with colleagues and checking in with their editors.
"The media centres in both provinces have served as hubs for journalists and journalism students there, and they will continue to do so," said Noorrahman Rahmani, IWPR's country director in Afghanistan.
In Tirin Kot, the main town of Uruzgan, the equipment was signed over to the local branch of state broadcaster RTA, which is responsible for the media centre there. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, Nangarhar University took receipt of the equipment on behalf of its journalism faculty, which hosts the centre.
The provision of modern IT and communications systems was part of broader efforts to improve reporting skills and encouraging freedom of expression.
Rahmani said that under a programme called Critical Mass Media Reporting, "We trained more than 100 journalists in investigative and feature reporting in the most volatile provinces of southern and eastern Afghanistan. They received further mentoring while they were producing dozens of in-depth and feature reports for us."
At the handover ceremony in Uruzgan, the head of the provincial department for information and culture said the media centre had changed the face of Tirin Kot. Amanullah Khpalwak said it had been instrumental both in building reporter's skills and in giving them greater access to information.
Local reporter Ajmal Wesal started attending the centre in Tirin Kot three years ago learning to be a journalist. He continues to go there in order to send daily news items to his editor in Kabul.
"There are ten or 15 reporters and civil society activists who come to the centre every day," he said.
The two centres were supported under the Critical Mass Media Reporting programme which ran from 2011 to 2014. The one in Uruzgan was created from zero while the Nangarhar centre had existed previously, and its revival was also supported over the same period by a partnership between IWPR and the University of Arizona.
While the programme has finished, IWPR will continue helping and mentoring current and future journalists in both provinces.
