Afghanistan has a remarkable pluralistic and multilingual media landscape, freedom of expression and debate culture in regional comparison. The Afghan media landscape is described as the most open and free media landscape in South Asia. At the same time, according to Reporters Without Borders, the country's precarious security situation makes it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and therefore ranks 121st out of 180 in the global ranking of press freedom.
Female journalists in particular are exposed to severe professional obstacles and security risks, especially if they are investigating or working in the provinces in Afghanistan. They also continue to experience severe professional discrimination, both in society and by their employers.
The Afghan media landscape has also suffered financially in recent years. Dozens of media agencies and platforms have had to close down in the last two years for financial reasons and lack of funding. The financial situation is also reflected in the working conditions of Afghan journalists. Journalism graduates have difficulty finding work after graduation or have to accept precarious employment contracts and conditions. At the same time, university journalism education does not provide them with sufficient practical or academic knowledge on media law or ethnical standards of professional journalism. In 2019, the journalism faculty of Kabul University alone released 110 graduates - most of them without much career prospects - onto the job market.
The quality and ethical standards of media reporting are once again suffering from the financial strains of media institutions and the outdated education of journalists.
The quality standards of the media agencies in Afghanistan vary greatly, but are in most cases deficient. Besides the private news agency ToloNews, an incredible national success story that has achieved international quality standards, and the national public news agency RTA (Radio Television Afghanistan), which has been in a process of renewal for a year, there are a large number of different online, print, radio and TV media outlets that operate on very different quality standards.
The majority of media agencies and reporters regularly do not adhere to professional minimum standards or have no knowledge of them. Fake news, copy right violations and the distribution of foreign articles without the knowledge of the authors is a widespread practice. In addition, there is stereotypical reporting about female protagonists or insensitive media treatment and interviews with victims of violence and attacks due to a lack of awareness on the part of media reporters.
From 18-20 February 2020, KAS organized in cooperation with the Pajhwok Media Agency a three-day training course for young female Afghan journalists on the topic of "Gender- and Conflict-Sensitive Journalism". Participants were journalism graduates of various universities in Kabul.
The aim of the training was to promote the next (female) generation in the field of professional journalism in Afghanistan and to facilitate their career entry.
In the training course, the participants were to learn the rights, duties and responsibilities of professional journalists as well as methods of gender- and conflict-sensitive reporting, also in order to enable them to assert themselves better on the job market.
Among the topics covered in the training were:
- Media law in Afghanistan (including the right of access to information)
- Ethical standards of a professional journalist
- Reporting methods: Information gathering, structuring and writing of reports, gender and conflict sensitive language and reporting
