Afghan Journalism Group Takes Flight

IWPR has completed a three-year programme of support for a media resource centre in Mazar-e Sharif, northern Afghanistan, by donating a set of office equipment for its headquarters.

Desktop computers, scanners, printers, chairs, desks and air conditioners were formally signed over at a September 10 ceremony at the office of the Social Association of Journalists in North Afghanistan (SAJNA).

The transfer marks the successful conclusion of a three-year partnership designed to turn SAJNA into a resource centre and a centre of excellence, with the capacity to support for local journalists and lobby for freedom of expression in the region and beyond.

The IWPR partnership was launched in 2011, with the end goal of helping the association - then known as the Balkh House of Reporters - become a standalone journalism centre. (See Media Union Emerges From Mazar Project.) The project was funded by the National Endowment for Democracy,

IWPR Afghanistan country director Noorrahman Rahmani said this had been now accomplished, noting that SAJNA had held a series of training workshops in Balkh and other provinces of northern Afghanistan over the last year.

"Building local capacity has been one of IWPR's main goals since it started working in the country in 2002. We have established and helped found several Afghan news agencies, journalists' associations, and media centres of excellence across Afghanistan," he said. "SAJNA will continue to serve as one of our most reliable partners in northern Afghanistan. We will ensure that any activities in northern Afghanistan are run in very close cooperation and coordination with SAJNA."

SAJNA's director Gulab Shah Bawar agreed that the fact that the association had become able to run training courses by itself and set up its own website was "proof of our ability to function on our own".

"Eighty per cent of the journalists in northern Afghanistan have received training from IWPR in professional journalism. With technical and professional support from IWPR, we've been able to establish five regional offices in various northern provinces," he added.

Mohammad Aref Mosavi, who chairs SAJNA's board of directors, said equipment and training provided by IWPR had significantly raised professional standards among local journalists.

"Financial and professional support from IWPR has been very important to us. A recent training workshop for our trainers is one example of that support," Mosavi said.

According to SAJNA board member Attahulhaq Zobair Fazli, the plan is to build the organisation and expand into new areas.

"First, it's incumbent on us to exercise oversight of the association's finances in order to ensure transparency," he said. "Second, we shouldn't confine ourselves to holding basic journalism workshops. Instead, we should be thinking about focusing on new topics like online journalism, citizen journalism, multimedia and much more."

Handing over the kit, IWPR project manager Munir Mehraban underlined that "donating this equipment does not mean an end to our support for the association and the journalists. We have now entered into a new phase of collaboration between these two organisations, IWPR and SAJNA. We will continue to coordinate closely with the association, and its members will receive further support in the shape of advice and professional capacity building."