Media outlook remains bleak in Konduz

Mohammad Yasin and his colleagues have no choice but to routinely wrestle with the half-century-old manual monotype German printing press at the Konduz printing press in their efforts to publish the state-run Konduz bi-weekly. The four-page, A4 size news and information sheet has a circulation of only a few hundred, but remains virtually the only source of national information for the city's 800,000 inhabitants. "This is all we can do in 15 days. It is difficult to publish more than a hundred copies, because everything is done by hand; even the printing machine is manually operated," the 24-year-old machine operator told IRIN in the northeastern city of Konduz. Lack of efficient and effective media outlets is keenly felt in much of the northeast of the country - Baghlan, Konduz and Badakhshan provinces - at a time when major first-ever programmes, such as disarmament of ex-combatants, deployment of the German-led international peacekeeping forces for first time outside the capital, Kabul, and registration of voters for next year's presidential elections, are under way in the country. But despite this acute need, according to the UN office in Konduz, hardly any newspapers reach any of the local communities and, until recently, there was no radio to cover the northeastern provinces either. Recently, Konduz local radio was inaugurated, but its range is only 40 km. "It is important to have a local press to project the problems of the local community and also to raise public awareness regarding many very important issues taking place in the northeastern region, particularly in Konduz," Painda Mohammad Rahyab, the editor of Basirat, an independent social and cultural monthly magazine in Konduz, told IRIN. Rahyab, who has personally financed the publication of two issues of his magazine, said although there were a few nongovernmental presses, they did not last a long, because there was no advertising revenue or other source of funding to keep them going. "There were a few nongovernmental weeklies and monthlies, but they disappeared as they faced funding problems," Rahyab said, noting that he might be unable to publish the third issue of Basirat unless he could obtain funds. "There are only state-run provincial newspapers in the northeast, which are published once a week or twice a month. But they are all low-quality publications," Mohammad Alam, a political affairs assistant at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) northeastern regional office, told IRIN in Konduz. According to the UNAMA, there are some local TV stations in the region, which broadcast for three to four hours a day, but have a range of only five km. "The TV programmes are not very interesting for most people because of the interference and direct influence of the authorities," Alam said. He went on to note that there was little freedom of expression in the region. "Sometimes, there are indications of threats. For example, whenever there is any news or information which affects the commanders, the authorities don’t allow it to be broadcast," he asserted. Local communities, who mostly listen to the BBC or broadcasts from neighbouring countries, are frustrated in that none of those sources reflects their region's problems. "We have over 150 donor-funded different independent local press outlets in Kabul, while there is not a single independent and objective local press outlet to reflect the pains and needs of Konduz people," Mohammad Shafiq, a resident of Emam Saheb District of Konduz Province, told IRIN. He went on to stress that there was a pressing need to raise public awareness in the rural areas, where humanitarian and political problems were often more intense. "Let's start the rehabilitation in the provinces, as the war, devastation and destruction started from here," the 35-year-old doctor asserted.