DW-AKADEMIE’S PROJECTS IN AFGHANISTAN

Promoting Democracy by Strengthening the Media

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GERDA MEUER

MEDIA AID OPENS A WINDOW TO THE WORLD

A contribution to the democratization of Afghanistan 5

RTA EDITOR > AHMAD BA SHIR PAIMAN 9

ELLEN SCHUSTER

A PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN DIVERSITY IN THE AFGHAN MEDIA L ANDSCAPE

Propaganda in the Guise of Press Freedom 11

ELLEN SCHUSTER

AT TACKS AGAINST JOURNALISTS ON THE INCRE A SE

Where cr i t ica l journal is t s r isk their l ives 13

CARSTEN VON NAHMEN

DEUTSCHE WELLE ’S CONCERTED HELP FOR RTA

A Success Stor y with a Long Histor y of i t s Own 15

E XCERP TS FROM THE JOURNALISM GUIDELINE S

OF THE PUBLIC BROADCASTER RTA 17

ELLEN SCHUSTER AND EBERHARD SUCKER

RTA — DW-AK ADEMIE ’S PARTNER IN AFGHANISTAN

Transforming a State-Contro l led Broadcaster into one Governed by Publ ic Law 19

RTA EDITOR > SOHAIL A WEDA A KHAMOSH 21

MICHAEL TECKLENBURG

SCENE S FROM THE E VERYDAY L IFE OF A PROJECT MANAGER

Pioneer ing Work : Making the Impossib le Possib le 23

RTA EDITOR > R AHIMA NOORI 27

ULRIKE BR ATKE

IMPRE S SIONS OF DAILY L IFE IN THE NE WSROOM

Choosing the Right Lead 29

TR AINER > IBR AHIM KHAIL SAFIULL AH 35

MEDIA DE VELOPMENT WORLDWIDE

DW-AK ADEMIE 37

Contents

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As a partner of the state broadcaster Radio

Television Afghanistan (RTA), Germany’s

foreign broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW), is

making an important contribution to the pro-

cess of democratization in Afghanistan. Be-

cause free, independent and reliable media are

essential to democracy. They provide people

throughout the country with information and

thus contribute to active opinion-forming.

Kabul, August 2006. The suspense and an-ticipation are etched on the faces of those present as the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his Afghan counterpart, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, press the red button in the TV studio control room of the state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan. It’s the launching signal for the first broadcast of RTA’s new, international news program. Produced exclusively in Afghanistan, this is the first international news program by Afghans for Afghans. In this long-isolated country, it opens a window to the world for many people. The program is broadcast nationwide in the country’s two official languages, Dari and Pashto.

This premiere is the culmination of years of effort by trainers, journalists and technicians: the new program replaces the international news for Afghanistan, produced for several years in Berlin and broadcast to Afghani-stan by Germany’s overseas TV broadcaster, DW-TV. RTA officials, DW media experts and the German Foreign Ministry, which financed the project, are all agreed: This project is a successful example of how to help people to help themselves. It avoided a long-term dependence on German media development aid. Instead, our Afghan col-leagues were put in a position from which they could now turn their own focus to in-ternational news and report it accordingly.

MEDIA AID OPENS A WINDOW TO THE WORLD

A contribution to the democratization of Afghanistan

GERDA MEUER

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The concept was realized by DW-AKADEMIE, Deutsche Welle’s international media ca-pacity-building center. DW-AKADEMIE is staffed by experts in media development co-operation with decades of experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. For two years, DW-AKADEMIE’s me-dia trainers negotiated the introduction of innovations with the respective local au-thorities and organized training programs and workshops, often under very difficult conditions. Their efforts paid off: not only was the premiere, watched by the two for-

eign ministers, a success. Today, RTA’s inter-national newsroom continues to broadcast Afghanistan’s most professional international TV news programs.

Kabul, 21 August 2006: foreign ministers Rangin

Dadfar Spanta (left) and Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier

launch RTA’s international news program.

In the background are Deutsche Welle director-

general, Erik Bettermann, and the former RTA

director-general, Nadjib Roshan.

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After seven months, it finally came true – the

dream of RTA’s own international news program.

At first, it did not look good for the project:

some established employees at RTA dismissed

us as “street children” and “schoolchildren”

and placed various obstacles in our path. But

our team and trainers stuck with it and now

we are very proud of our bilingual international

news. The RTA’s managers are proud even of

the name itself and never miss an opportunity

to mention our international news program. Our

program has won over a large audience, espe-

cially among the country’s educated people.

Some people are even of the opinion that the

program is the only one in Afghanistan which

is produced in accordance with professional

standards of journalism and which provides

people with objective information.

AHMAD BASHIR PAIMAN

RTA EDITOR

Everyday journalism: painstakingly prepared scripts

to go with the pictures and authenticity through live

stand-ups

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A PREVIOUSLY UNSEEN DIVERSITY IN THE AFGHAN MEDIA LANDSCAPE

Propaganda in the Guise of Press Freedom

More than 70 percent of all adult Afghans can

neither read nor write and in rural areas, the

figure is considerably higher. Therefore, in

comparison to print media, the electronic me-

dia are of even greater importance for keeping

the population informed – even though it’s

estimated that there are only 114 radios and

14 television sets per 1,000 inhabitants in

Afghanistan.

Since the fall of the Taliban regime, the once state-controlled media landscape in Afghani-stan has flourished as never before. By mid-2007, six new private TV stations and more than 50 radio stations were competing for audiences’ attention. Most of these stations are reliant on subsidies from western do-nors, which is why experts are forecasting a process of market concentration in the near future. But already, there are strong, financially independent broadcasters, such as the private broadcaster Tolo-TV, run by former Afghan exiles, which also tackles controversial issues. In any case, the state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan has faced growing and unprecedented competi-tion since 2001.

Many private stations serve the population’s need for light entertainment. On the other hand, there are small, local broadcasters whose employees never tire of pointing out failings in Afghan politics and society. One example of this is the private radio station Sada-e-Sulh (Radio Peace), established by the journalist Zakia Zaki, who was murdered in June 2007 (see page 13).

ELLEN SCHUSTER

Right and opportunity: freedom of expression

That quantity does not necessarily mean quality, in the media landscape any more than in other fields, is documented by nu-merous stations whose employees more or less openly advertise political groupings of various shades under the guise of press free-

dom and freedom of opinion. Some of them are influenced or controlled by warlords and are deliberately used to agitate against the state order, the government and the inter-national community. The Afghan journal-ist, Rahimullah Samander, put it as follows:

“I am very worried about journalism in Af-ghanistan. A large part of the press and most TV and radio broadcasters are now biased. There is a loss of objectivity in reporting and we journalists are increasingly losing our credibility.” Self-censorship and the lack of profes-sionalism of many Afghan journalists is also contributing to their loss of standing in Af-ghan society. Hardly any working journal-ist formally learned the trade. And many are unable to distinguish between different aspects of journalism such as reporting or comment. It is therefore understandable that the Af-ghan media have a long way to go before they can take up their place as the “fourth estate” in a democratic society.

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The number of attacks against domestic and

international journalists in Afghanistan has

been rising steadily for several years, accord-

ing to the international “Committee to Protect

Journalists” in Afghanistan. Especially in the

south of the country, critical journalists are

threatened, beaten up, locked up and murdered

on false charges. In June 2007, unknown as-

sailants shot dead two female journalists in the

space of just one week. Zakia Zaki (35) was

the founder of “Radio Peace”, a station in the

northern province of Parwan run by women

only. The 22-year-old Shokiba Shanga worked

as a TV presenter and reporter for the private

broadcaster Shamshad Television.

Although most of the victims of violence are

critical, native journalists, international report-

ers have also repeatedly come under attack.

In October 2006, unknown assailants shot dead

the two German journalists, Karin Fischer (30)

and Christian Struwe (38). Both had worked for

many years as freelancers for Deutsche Welle.

As a reporter for DW-RADIO, Karen Fischer

had filed numerous bulletins from Afghani-

stan, while Christian Struwe had worked on

DW-AKADEMIE’s project to reconstruct RTA.

In most cases, the culprits remain unidenti-

fied. But it is no secret that supporters of the

Islamist Taliban are behind most of the attacks.

Militant zealots are assailing the media and

freedom of opinion by any means available.

But despite this resurgent climate of vio-

lence, most journalists in Afghanistan are de-

termined not to give up.

The young TV reporter, Masood Qiam, makes

his point clear: “I grew up here – under the

Communists, the Mudjaheddin and the Taliban.

Our life has always been very dangerous. That’s

why death threats cannot deter us from doing

our work. It would be much more dangerous

for journalists if one day parliament were to

restrict press freedoms. Because then we would

no longer be able to do our work effectively

and some day the government would ignore

our reporting.”

ATTACKS AGAINST JOURNALISTS ON THE INCREASE

Where critical journalists risk their lives

ELLEN SCHUSTER

The Deutsche Welle journalists, Karen Fischer and

Christian Struwe

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For decades, Afghanistan was largely isolated

from the outside world by war, chaos and the

religious fanaticism of the Mudjaheddin and

Taliban. Deutsche Welle’s media aid reopened

a window to the world for many Afghans.

It was the spring of 2002, shortly after the fall of the Taliban regime: “How can we help Afghanistan to rebuild after more than two decades of war and civil war?” – this was a question often asked at this time – and the people at Deutsche Welle were no excep-tion. Providing studio equipment to the state broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan, with which Deutsche Welle has long-standing links, was one answer. Expanding DW-RADIO’s Dari and Pashto programs, broadcast on short and medium wave, was another. Within a very short space of time, DW-TV set up a department of Afghan exiles in Berlin, who produced an international news program in the Afghan national lan-guages, Dari and Pashto, and transmitted it to RTA in Kabul via satellite.

DW-AKADEMIE got involved with training courses for radio and television journalists in Afghanistan. All this emergency media aid was made possible by special German government funds allotted to the stability pact for Af-ghanistan. But it was clear to all involved that

DEUTSCHE WELLE’S CONCERTED HELP FOR RTA

A Success Story with a Long History of its Own

CARSTEN VON NAHMEN

The RTA headquarters in Kabul

this reconstruction could only be successful in the long-term if the Afghans themselves were put in a position to produce quality television and radio for their compatriots on their own. Together, DW-AKADEMIE, DW-TV and the leadership of RTA drew up a concept for the step-by-step establishment of an in-ternational newsroom at RTA. And although there were many obstacles in the beginning: DW-AKADEMIE succeeded in training a group of young, inexperienced journalists in a short space of time, forming a professional team capable of producing daily programs of a high editorial and technical standard.

Yet it is not clear where the future will lead. The conditions for high-quality journalism at RTA – as for so many development proj-ects in Afghanistan overall – have deterio-rated. This is not just because of the security situation in the country, but also because of the resurgence of anti-modern, anti-re-formist forces in Afghan society, which reach up as far as government offices. The pro-fessional standards and globally-orientated cosmopolitanism for which the international newsroom stands are a thorn in the side of many opponents of reform.

(top) DW-AKADEMIE trainers Ibrahimkhail Safiullah

(left) and Andre Surén; (bottom) Setting up a new

RTA satellite disk

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Ambitious efforts by Afghan journalists on location

and in the studio

As a broadcaster governed by public law, RTA

(...) has the task of supporting the functionality

of the state and putting the citizen in a posi-

tion to understand and have a say in how the

state works through its reporting and infor-

mation. (...) To do this, its programming must

reflect the diversity of the Islamic Republic of

Afghanistan and portray the tasks and chal-

lenges facing the democratic state currently

under construction.

With the quality and plurality of its program-

ming, RTA makes an essential contribution to

democratic opinion-forming in Afghanistan.

EXCERPTS FROM THE JOURNALISM GUIDELINES

OF THE PUBLIC BROADCASTER RTA

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During the Taliban era, the state-controlled

broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan had

to stop its television operations almost en-

tirely and was allowed to broadcast spoken

word programs only on radio. Today, the state

broadcaster faces far-reaching reforms due

to growing competition from private stations.

DW-AKADEMIE is a partner in the project to

restructure the broadcaster.

RTA currently broadcasts 15 hours of tele-vision programming a day: news in the country’s official languages, Dari and Pashto, educational and information programs, art and literature, religious broadcasts, movies and light entertainment. Overall, in-house productions make up about half of all pro-gramming. The remainder is covered by pro-

gramming taken over from DW-TV, BBC or National Geographic, for example, or by music videos. Nationwide, 75 percent of the Afghan population can receive RTA’s TV program-ming terrestrially. RTA has 19 local stations, not all of which have the technology to send their own reports to Kabul. For this reason, reporting tends to concentrate on the capital, Kabul, and is an inadequate reflection of events in the provinces and the ethnic diver-sity of the country. Even after the end of the Taliban regime, the debate about freedom of press and freedom of opinion and their potential for conflict with Islamic principles continues. The contents of broadcasts are often attacked as anti-Islamic and in-house censors continue to “check” each and every report before it is aired.

Over the past few years, RTA has lost many viewers to new, private competition. Many young, highly-qualified employees have gone to work for the private stations, which are better equipped, boast more modern work-ing structures and pay considerably higher wages than those common at RTA. The loss of well-trained staff is compounded by an

ELLEN SCHUSTER AND EBERHARD SUCKER

RTA – DW-AKADEMIE’S PARTNER IN AFGHANISTAN

Transforming a State-Controlled Broadcaster into one Governed by Public Law

Painstaking preparations in RTA’s TV studio

excess of unqualified personnel at RTA, left over from the Communist era. In a democracy, which it’s hoped Afghani-stan will become, public broadcasters act as guarantors of independent reporting and supply basic media services to the population. Despite all difficulties, the state-controlled Afghan broadcaster RTA is predestined to assume this role. Therefore, the European Commission, as part of its measures to promote the democ-ratization of Afghanistan, has commissioned a consortium of international broadcasters,

made up of the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Canal France Internationale, to analyze the need for reform at RTA and to draw up a plan for transforming it into a broadcaster governed by public law. This reform will take several years to implement and is also certain to meet re-sistance from many of those involved. Be-cause instead of state and party control and direction, the ultimate aim of the reform is responsible and independent behavior by employees. These changes raise fears and concerns – both among the directly affected and among the politicians responsible. But already, the consortium and those in charge at RTA have reached a number of milestones. Parliament has already been presented with new media legislation for Afghanistan and a new broadcasting law

for RTA. Furthermore, RTA is no longer under the direct authority of the informa-tion minister. The consortium has drawn up journalism guidelines for RTA and made proposals for the restructuring of the TV and radio departments. The training of exist-ing employees is an essential aspect of this restructuring process. Because it is they who will ultimately have to bear responsibility when the foreign experts are withdrawn. The consortium has drawn up a training plan expressly for this purpose as well as propos-als for further development of staff and a reduction of the excessive staff numbers.

Combined concentration in the editing suite

21

The Afghan journalist, Daud Dadras, once

said: “When I saw RTA’s world news program

for the first time, I could not believe that it

was produced by young journalists from the

international newsroom. The program was so

professional.” In my experience, a large part of

the Afghan population shares the same opinion

as Daud Dadras.

When our first program was broadcast, many

people were astonished at what we had achieved

in such a short space of time. This recognition

encouraged us and spurred us on to put even

more effort and precision into subsequent pro-

grams, despite all the difficulties.

SOHAILA WEDAA KHAMOSH

RTA EDITOR

(top) Christian Struwe (left) in a training situation

(bottom) The RTA team in front of a new satellite dish

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When the Deutsche Welle AKADEMIE team

arrived at RTA headquarters in Kabul, it en-

countered a bleak situation. There were no

suitable rooms for training, no studio deco-

ration, not even professional TV equipment.

Despite these conditions, the aim was clear:

putting our Afghan colleagues in a position to

independently produce a news program that

conformed to western standards. The project

manager, Michael Tecklenburg, relates how

the team succeeded in helping their Afghan

colleagues to help themselves, despite the

difficult conditions.

It was a hearty welcome at Radio Television Afghanistan in Kabul, in those early days of July 2005. Regardless of whom I had to deal with, all were full of praise for the friend-ship between Germany and Afghanistan and their traditionally good relations. I was to spend eighteen months here, working with my colleagues to set up the international newsroom. But it wasn’t long before a dull, everyday project routine set in. Weeks of tea-drinking, planning and organization went by before the actual courses could begin. When they finally did get started, we realized that some department managers did not appear to be taking the project seriously. They repeatedly tried to withdraw their former employees from the training courses so that they could return to work in their own departments.

Then some trainees demanded higher sala-ries from RTA and went on strike. In the end, the group had shrunk to the extent that it was clear to all of us: if we kept going like this, we would never be able to build a strong enough team for a newsroom. Help came from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Its branch in Kabul put up some grants and that

MICHAEL TECKLENBURG

SCENES FROM THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF A PROJECT MANAGER

Pioneering Work: Making the Impossible Possible

Project manager Michael Tecklenburg at work

way we were able to assemble another train-ing group made up of young, highly moti-vated journalists and university graduates, which restored our sense of optimism. Then winter came. Power failures con-tinuously interrupted the training sessions. Room temperatures well below ten degrees Celsius made our work harder, and there were practically no heaters or ovens in the building. In February came the first decisive stage victory: we managed to produce a ten-minute review of the week in both of the country’s official languages, Dari and Pashto. The picture material was supplied by DW-TV. “We would never have thought you would manage it”, was the reaction from some people in the RTA hierarchy.

Now, despite the relatively good staffing conditions, it was time to really “get go-ing”. It should not be forgotten that train-ees in Germany often get up to two years of training, and already have much higher levels of education. Many of our trainees had got their education in refugee camps in Pakistan or Iran. Against this background, their achievements become all the more impressive. Their willingness to accept the strict work regime we imposed on them was equally impressive: precise schedules, well-organized working structures, teamwork beyond ethnic lines. Many of these concepts were new to our trainees and getting them across sometimes demanded all our persua-sive skills. For example, we had to make clear to our colleagues that it is not important for this job whether someone is Hasara, Uzbek

(top) In the TV control room: tension and

concentration during the program; (bottom) Winter-

time: learning without proper heating

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or Pashto, that it does not matter whether someone is a Shia or a Sunni. This was by no means something we could take for granted. In the beginning, different groups formed in the newsroom and avoided contact with the others. A true team spirit did not possible until everyone sensed and realized that our goals could only be reached if we worked towards them together. “Getting going” meant that the weekly review always had to be finished before Fri-day and that every other day, a program had to be produced “for the rubbish bin”. One important element of this “dummy produc-tion” was the daily manouvers required for constructive criticism. Criticism is a particularly sensitive issue in Afghan culture. It is normal to praise, but criticism is considered unbecoming. The

challenge was: how to criticize without breaking the rules of respect? We tried to demonstrate that constructive criticism is an instrument with which failings or weak-nesses can be discovered and improvements made. And we succeeded! We observed how our trainees began to apply their critical abilities in co-operation with voice artists, presenters and technicians as part of their constant efforts to make progress and im-prove the program. On 21 August 2006, the big moment finally arrived. When, in the presence of the Afghan and German foreign ministers, the first program really did get produced without mishap, the relief was huge. We had done it! Not only were the technicians and journalists we had trained full of pride, so too were many other colleagues at Radio

Television Afghanistan. Because, for the first time, this state institution was capable of pro-ducing international news independently. But the most precious moment for me as the project manager was yet to come. At a meeting of our former trainees with the new Afghan information minister, Ka-rim Khoram, the freshly appointed head of the newsroom, Shahamat Ismaeil, was asked what was special about RTA’s world news. He responded as follows: “Thanks to the help of Deutsche Welle, we are now in a position to apply our own Afghan focus to current events around the world!”

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RAHIMA NOORI

RTA EDITOR

In Afghanistan, it is fundamentally difficult for

girls and women to obtain vocational training.

Learning a profession in the media is all but

impossible. When I started, nearly all my family,

friends and neighbors were against me and I

had to fight to get training. To make matters

worse, DW-AKADEMIE’s courses ended after

dark during the winter months and it is inap-

propriate, and can even be dangerous, for an

Afghan woman to walk home on her own so

late. But despite all that I stuck with it. The

trainers and my colleagues supported me and

that was a big help. With this new-found self-

confidence, I was able to overcome all the dif-

ficulties and take part in the courses right up

to the end. What impressed me in particular

was that during the training courses everybody

was given the right to express their opinion and

debate with others. Everybody was allowed to

criticize without restrictions, and for example,

to critically analyze the previous program. We

all profited greatly from this and learned new

things every day.

Afghan girls on their way to school

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Anyone who applies for a traineeship in a

public broadcaster in Germany usually has

graduated from university and also has a few

years of experience as a freelancer at a local

newspaper or broadcaster. The young Afghan

journalists whom Ulrike Bratke encountered

during her training mission for DW-AKADEMIE,

however, grew up in a time of war and could

count themselves lucky to have been able to

attend school regularly. But they do have one

thing in common with their German counter-

parts: a burning ambition to do the job well.

It was my first day as one of DW-AKADEMIE’s trainers in Kabul. It was still two months to the official program launch. Like any other morning, the young editorial team began by researching the news of the day on the Internet. Hardly any of them had electricity at home, which made it impossible for them to inform themselves beforehand by radio, TV or Internet. What is the news? What are international broadcasters such as BBC, CNN, DW-TV and Aljazeera reporting on this day in May, 2006? Team meeting, brainstorming. Everybody is to have their say and name their choice of news for the day. What are the top stories? And above all, why? One of the younger group is team leader: this week it’s Shahamat. We trainers try to stay out of it and only get involved when necessary.

Asif ’s first news proposal today: Indonesia. For days, there have been reports that the Mount Merapi volcano, not far from the metropolis of Yogyakarta, is about to erupt. Some 17,000 people have to be evacuated. We have already had the story in our pro-gram several times, a natural disaster on a large scale, and in Asia, too.

IMPRESSIONS OF DAILY LIFE IN THE NEWSROOM

Choosing the Right Lead

ULRIKE BR ATKE

Finally, Internet facilities are also available for

research

“But what exactly is the story today?”, I ask the group. “What is new about it?” Asif argues that the evacuations are continuing apace and that the volcano is already spewing ash and lava. In other words, the story is de-veloping. We ask Fahima, who is responsible this week for evaluating the material avail-able from Reuters news agency: “Are there new pictures?” According to Fahima there are new, spectacular images of Mount Merapi and people fleeing. The group agrees that the story has potential. Shahamat records it on the board. All proposed stories are written on the board for everyone to see. It is essential for these young journalists that they structure their work, make selec-tions and set priorities. Having grown up with war, living from day to day, never be-

ing able to plan ahead and usually having to accept what they got, they run the risk of drowning in the flood of information. So we keep going. Wahid’s proposal: Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his nuclear pro-gram in neighboring Iran. There are new statements by him on Iran as a nuclear power, despite international criticism. An important issue that might even be worth leading the program with. Encouraging discussion, we ask the group,: “Why are the Iranian presi-dent’s nuclear policies an important issue for Afghanistan?” When I give courses to trainees at Deutsche Welle back in Germany, I am used to lively, sometimes heated debate. But with this group, we first had to persuade the young people to talk at all.

(top) A strong team (from left): Wahid Feroz, Martin

Hilbert and Ulrike Bratke; (bottom) Practical, realis-

tic training has top priority

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What’s important in world events? What’s important for Afghanistan? Today, like most other days, the agencies are reporting an-other attack in Iraq with numerous fatali-ties. Rashid suggests including the subject in the program. Although we have all long since seen enough of these terrible attacks in Baghdad, this kind of story naturally belongs in a daily international news bulletin. I ask Bashir to check the picture mate-rial from Iraq. Is there enough for a short report or just a brief item? Bashir views the agency pictures and comes to the conclusion that the material is not good. “Not good?”, I ask. “Why not?” He answers that techni-cally, the pictures are okay, but that there are no corpses to be seen. Plenty of blood and devastation, but no bodies.

This prompts us to conduct a discussion about ethics in TV: “What should I show and what should I not show? Are corpses actually decisive for this short report? Are there ethical limits? And if so, what are the limits? What are ethical limits in the first place? Should I use all the pictures sent by the agencies?” These young journalists have all experienced war in Afghanistan. Dead bodies were part of everyday wartime life for them. They have a completely different threshold to ours when it comes to pictures like this. Our goal is to produce ten minutes of programming every day. On the one hand, to develop a daily routine and on the oth-er hand, to give the editorial team quality training. To sharpen the editors’ focus and

teach them to make journalistic distinctions between different subjects. So far, all the sug-gestions we have gathered are what’s known as hard news. I ask the group if the latest conquest of Mount Everest might not be a good “kicker” to end today’s program with. In the Himalayas, in Nepal, close to the border from China, really just a stone’s throw from Afghani-stan, a man without legs had scaled Mount Everest. The pictures were broadcast around the world and viewed as a sensation: Mark Inglis from New Zealand had become the first person whose legs had both been am-putated to climb Mount Everest and reach the peak of the highest mountain in the world. Nobody in the editorial team can understand all the excitement. “Why?”, I

want to know. First of all, it becomes clear that nobody knows where Mount Everest is. “Maybe somewhere in Africa?” And sec-ondly: “Legs amputated”? That’s an everyday sight in Kabul.” War casualties who struggle

through life without wheelchairs, crutches or health insurance. Finally, we come to an agreement. If we can’t find any other “soft news”, then the climber would be a suitable way to end the program. After all the deaths

and disasters and suchlike, the principle of hope would be a welcome addition to the diversity of the program. Another piece of news goes unmentioned in the editorial meeting. It’s a report from China: the enormous Three Gorges Dam has been completed. The world’s biggest hy-droelectric power plant will deliver as much electricity as 15 to 20 nuclear power stations. But the project is extremely controversial. Thousands of villages had to be flooded and more than a million people relocated. Reuters has also sent us pictures from China. Pictures of the dam and an interview with a man who criticizes the Chinese government and its policy of building a dam. The Chinese man, Fu Xiancai, complains that like many others, he has yet to receive

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the compensation he was promised for re-locating. “I’ve been to Beijing fifteen times to complain to the central government. I’ve been to the local and provincial govern-ments more than fifty times. I never got any help. On the contrary: I was threatened and beaten.” The material is sensational. But no-body in the editorial team grasps the political explosiveness of his statements. We discuss the subject in several ways: “Why could this story also be interesting for Afghanistan?” It’s about energy policies, environmental pro-tection and above all, about democracy and freedom of expression. All these are issues in the Afghanistan of today and tomorrow as well. “What’s happening in other countries?” “What does this mean for Afghanistan?”

By the end of this editorial meeting we could easily fill a half-hour program. Now it’s time to set priorities and part with cer-tain stories. To give the program gravity and an identity. It will start with Iran’s nuclear program, unfortunately the demonstra-tions in Montenegro have to go, instead Iraq and China, among others, stay in. And in the end the New Zealander with both legs amputated not only makes it to the top of Mount Everest, he also makes it onto Afghanistan’s international news program. The principle of hope has prevailed, at least for this bulletin. (top) Applying the final touches to the presenter’s

scripts; (bottom) In the RTA TV control room just

before the program goes to air

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After 17 years in exile in Germany, my first

working trip for DW-AKADEMIE was also to be

my first journey home. How can I describe the

feeling that came over me while I was wait-

ing for my flight from the military airport at

Cologne/Bonn? I was returning home and had

the opportunity to help with reconstruction

efforts.

I landed at the tiny, dusty airport of Kunduz,

a town in northern Afghanistan. I was so ex-

cited I did not know whether to laugh or cry.

My destination was the headquarters of Radio

Television Afghanistan in Kunduz. I was sched-

uled to take part in an initial DW-AKADEMIE

journalism training program as an interpreter.

Were it not for the huge satellite dishes in the

yard of the RTA building, nobody would have

guessed that this was the television station in

Kunduz. Inside the building, Afghan journal-

ists were producing their reports using VHS

technology: from a German point of view, not

even home movie quality.

Since there was very little space in which

our journalism courses could take place, the

director-general of RTA Kunduz made his own

office available to us for two weeks as a seminar

room. For him, training his staff was an absolute

priority.

Through the many years of war, few in Afgha-

nistan had any chance of getting an educa-

tion or vocational training. I was extremely

impressed to observe how much the people

there strive for knowledge. They have an awful

lot to catch up on. They use every free minute

to learn more. Many of them go to other classes

immediately after our own training sessions, for

example English-language or computer courses.

And this despite the many obligations associ-

ated with feeding their large families. All, men

and women, went about their courses with great

zeal. They concentrated hard, trying to learn

all the time and then trying to put their new-

found knowledge into practice. I could hardly

believe that young women could be working so

enthusiastically as journalists in Kunduz: until

recently the town was a Taliban stronghold, in

which television was taboo.

One female journalist from Kunduz told me

about the massive telephone and personal

death threats to which she is exposed because

of her work as a critical journalist. But these

problems do not deter her from continuing

to appear on television as a presenter and

reporter.

In order to provide the people of Afghanistan

with information, she and her colleagues run

these risks every day.

IBRAHIMKHAIL SAFIULLAH

TRAINER AND INTERPRETER

37

MEDIA DEVELOPMENT WORLDWIDE

DW-AKADEMIE

DW-AKADEMIE is Deutsche Welle’s interna-

tional media capacity-building center. For more

than four decades, the center has offered its

partners and clients around the world a broad

spectrum of training and consulting measures

as part of media development co-operation

programs. One focus is on training and further

education for employees of the electronic

media in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern

Europe and the Middle East.

For some years now, DW-AKADEMIE has also been increasingly active in the recon-struction of radio and television stations in post-conflict states. The reason for this is the belief that the establishment of demo-cratic structures in crisis regions can only be successful if this process is accompanied and supported by a politically mature pub-lic in the respective countries. Only well-informed citizens can take an active part in democratic life and only professionally trained journalists can provide them with the necessary information.

DW-AKADEMIE’s international projects are largely financed by the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ), the German Foreign Ministry, the European Commission and other public sponsors. At its headquarters in Bonn and Berlin, DW-AKADEMIE also offers customized media training programs for internation-ally active managers in the public sector. DW-AKADEMIE also conceives and imple-ments the training programs for Deutsche Welle’s own young journalists.

IMPRINT

PUBLISHER

Deutsche WelleDW-AKADEMIE

53110 Bonn

RESPONSIBLE

Gerda MeuerEDITING

Ulrike MeyerPUBLISHED

November 2007

PHOTOGRAPHS

Veronika Picmanova // vpicmanova@web.de // 02 / 04 / 07 / 11 / 22 / 27 / 29Eberhard Sucker // 01 / 06 / 08 / 14 / 15 / 18 / 20 / 25 / 31 / 35 / 40Carsten von Nahmen // 16 / 23 / 24 / 32 / 38 Andre Surén // 10 / 17 / 21 / 28 / 34 Ulrike Bratke // 19 / 26 / 30 / 32 / 33 / 36 / 37 Thomas Rehermann // 03 DW Archives // 05 / 09 / 12 / 13 / 39

www.dw-akademie.de

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