Global Media News

Global Media News Webcast #8: April 2, 2015

Listen to Global Media News for Thursday, April 2, 2015

 This week on Global Media News:  Pakistan, Afghanistan & Kazakhstan!

• Press Freedom in Pakistan
• Pakistani Journalists Under Pressure?
• Is the ISI Watching Pakistani Media
• What is BBC Media Action Doing in Pakistan?
• Censorship & Terrorism in Kazakhstan
• GLOBOX.TV: Internet TV in Afghanistan
• Social Media in Afghanistan
• Journalism & Censorship in Afghanistan

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about the world's media.

Listen to our next webcast from the New Media Newsroom  streaming live on Thursday, April 9 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, April 9, 2015.

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Afghan Journalists Censor Their Own Work

Afghan rebels have sent threats to journalist about the media releasing news.

Media censorship is known to be forced globally by several different governments. Usually a government puts restrict on the internet and other media outlets to control the news. There are several groups that run to protect the freedom of the press and strive to release news for the public about corruption, land grabbing, violence against women, and human rights abuses.

"A Human Rights Watch reporter, Patricia Gossman released Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, said journalists increasingly face threats from Taliban insurgents and corrupt government officials". Journalist are trying to protect themselves from the threats by censoring their work. They fear that their will be no support because many of the Taliban attacks are ignored.

According to Human Rights Watch there was an increase in journalists after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Since then there have been a rise of new media outlets in Afghanistan. These new media outlets are owned by political and religious figures, to broadcasting behemoth TOLO TV, owned by Afghan-Australian entrepreneur Saad Mohseni. According to the independent news outlet, Stars and Stripes, TOLO controls as much as 45 percent of the national market.

Since 2012 The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee reported 68 threats from pro- government forces and 63% of cases of the government being guilty of the reports. Self- censorship has become a "survival mechanism" since the government had failed to adhere to a "rule of law", said Gossman.  Rebels or corrupt government leaders would harass journalists at their offices, forcing them to apologize for critical reports, written against them. 

According to Nazifullah Salarzai, a spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan government takes threats to journalists seriously, and he encouraged media to report any harassment to government officials and that any government officials caught threatening journalists would be brought to justice. 

 

Sources

http://www.stripes.com/news/report-afghan-journalists-self-censor-to-survive-1.324786

Social media brings justice for Farkhunda

27 year old, Farkhunda was attacked and killed by an angry mob in Kabul for allegedly burning the Quran. Many people both in and out of Afghanistan learned about Farkhunda's tragic story on social media. Pictures,eye-witnesss and on the spot news stories  of the brutal incident was posted on a Afghan security Facebook page.  At first the brutal photos of her was posted under headings such as "a women killed for burning the  Quran" in order to justify murder. Public opinion of the incident however quickly began to change.

According to http://asiancorrespondent.com/, “When initial reports came in, some people on social media expressed approval for the murder. But as details began to come in, including videos of the brutality, the lackluster response of the police, Farkhunda’s family’s comments and Farkhunda’s background in religious studies, then those attitudes changed,” Ahmad Shuja, a Research Associate for Human Rights Watch, who relies on social media tools for his work, told Asian Correspondent." 

Numerous Facebook pages have been made specifically to bring justice to Farkhunda and her family. Images of her being attacked from videos of the tragic events were posted on these pages and were used as evidence to prosecute her killers. It was also used to expose the lack of protection given to her against a mob of hundreds. 

Karim Haidari,  an Afghan correspondent for the BBC says Fakundas death revolves around the charm selling, which Farkhunda publicly challenged. 

 

"It is alleged that the mullah connected with her death falsely accused her of burning the Quran to divert attention from his charm-selling business" according to Haidari. 

As of now 28 people were arrested for the murder of Farkundas death. 13 police officers were also suspended from duty. 

 

Global Media News Webcast #7: March 26, 2015

Global Media News for Thursday March 26, 2015

 This week on Global Media News:  India & Afghanistan!

• "India's Daughter" Censored in India?
• Cutting "Fifty Shades of Grey" for Indian Consumption
• Narendra Modi: King of Social Media Politics?
• Is Facebook Censored in India?
• Section 66 Overturned:  The Supreme Court Weighs In on Internet Censorship in India
• Journalism in Afghanistan: Women Journalists at Work

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.   We scour the web for news about the world's media.

Listen to our next webcast from the New Media Newsroom  streaming live on Thursday, April 2 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, April 2, 2015.

Subscribe Now!

Globox in Afghan

 

Globox.tv is the new and first Internet television station in Afghanistan. The eradication of the Taliban regime led to this new station being formed. Only around 12 years ago the regime had banned television , music and cinema. This has left many urban Afghans with a taste for the globalized media of pop culture such as Western celebrities and movies. 

 

The programming of Globox include segments like "What's new in Kabul?", where for seven minutes Aimal Qowat, 22 talks about events in the city. They have shows dedicated for movies, fashion and general news the mainstream media of Afghanistan don't prefer to handle. The bosses of Globox hope to attract a younger audience with their programming as opposed to an older one. 

According to aquila-style.com , Director Aref Ahmadi had this to say about the programming of Globox:

 

  “We do not talk about religion, sex or politics and we respect the constitution, but apart from that, there is nothing we can not do,” said Aref Ahmadi, 29, the director of Awaz, the private company that created Globox."

 

Only about a year into the media business, the main problem Globox faces now is the lack of viewership.  The issue is that internet speeds in Afghanistan are not fast enough for people to conveniently watch the programming. Globox employs 15 people and claims only about 200 views a day. However the owners will continue to invest in Globox even though it's not making any profits. 

 

German Journalist Urged to Stop Using Google

In the wake of potential spies watching your every move, the union that represents German journalists recommended that their journalists no longer use the powerful search engine, Google. The same goes with the search box on Yahoo!

This latest move by the German union is part of the domino effect of the feeling of insecurity after former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked information about the NSA (National Security Agency). Google is outraged by the NSA spying and has called for "urgent reform."

Michael Konken is the head of the union of journalists in Germany. He says "The searches made by journalists are just as confidential as the contact details of their sources and the contents of their communication with them." In other words, he believes that privacy is being invaded and journalists are no longer protected.

This move would affect German journalists greatly because the search engine is a great way to find sources, fact check, and find story ideas. The concern to protect privacy is legitimate and understandable, but would the quality of work be hurt by not using Google? It will be interesting to see if sacrificing Google is worth the potential downside effects of effective reporting.

Afghanistan vs. YouTube

        While the Afghanistan government has banned the use of YouTube to their citizens. The Afghanistan government felt that they did not want their citizens to have the freedom to view the kind of material that is available on YouTube. According to the New York Times, "While officials say they hope to lift the block “as soon as possible,” they have offered only a vague sense of what must happen before that can be done." The Afghan government is worried that their younger population will have access to view information that they do not want them to see, according to an Afghan citizen, "“I don’t need YouTube. I can watch videos on other Web sites.”

        The original reason that YouTube was banned was because of "a trailer for the video “Innocence of Muslims,” which portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a crass thug and a womanizer, began to circulate in September, the Afghan government reacted quickly to stem potential violence as riots broke out in other countries. In a move that senior Western officials in Afghanistan praised, the Afghan authorities reached out to religious leaders across the country, urging them to preach restraint and tolerance." More controversially, officials also decided to impose the ban on YouTube after the company refused to remove the video from its site.

        The citizens who agree with the government are not the people they need to worry about viewing the material, it's the people who disagree with the government and will find another way to view the material. The government has to has faith in their citizens. "Still, some are asking the question: Where does the government draw the line on filtering information to its citizens? The answer has consistently been: Anywhere Islam is insulted." In my opinion this is over the top, the government has to trust their citizens enough to have their own view on the Afghan government.

Global Media News Webcast #8: April 4, 2013

 Media News from Pakistan and Afghanistan!

  Global Media News for April 4, 2013

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury. 

This week on Global Media News:   "Media News from Pakistan & Afghanistan"

• Reality TV Police Raids in Pakistan
• Pakistan Bans Zero Dark Thirty
• Afghanistan's TOLO TV
• Afghanistan Bans Pakistani Press for Taliban Bias
• YouTube Censorship in Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Reconciling Islamic Values and Media in Pakistan
• Samsung's Marketing Campaign in Pakistan

Next week on GMN:   Media News from Turkey and Iran.

Listen to our webcast streaming live in two weeks on Thursday, April 4 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, April 11, 2013.

Subscribe Now!

Afghanistan: A nations and It's First Independent Television Station

Afghanistan: After recent decades of trouble and war Afghan people are now looking towards the future. That means learning new skills such s reading, writing and cooking. Skills like learning to read and write would have been hard to learn in the past, not now however. Thanks to Afghanistan's first independent television station, Tolo, people of the nation can be taught skills like reading and cooking. This new network is being seen as a light at the end of a dark tunnel.

    Tolo TV, which was created by Saad Mohseni, a high powered Afghan media mind, offers a wide rang of entertain. Soap operas, Sesame Street, talk shows and movies also join the educational programs of Tolo TV . A producer for marvel, Eva Orner, who spent time working with Tolo TV had this to say about the programming

    “Sesame Street is so interesting because it’s in so many countries around the world, but this is     really the only country where adults learn to read and write watching it.”

Tolo TV is making great strides in the education of its viewers. In a nation who's people are looking to rebuild, this television station seems like the right way to go. There are a number of other different media outlets, television and radio, but Tolo TV is the first of its kind. Up until now all of the TV stations in Afganistan are government owned. It would be something new for the people and the nation as well. 

    Afganistan has had a hard past with shutting down or suspended stations, radio and tv alike, but hopefully a new educational station like TOLO will stay open. It would be a bright light for the people of Afganistan and help them rebuild.

 

Video provided by Youtube and Tolo.TV.com: Video shows a panel of five people discussing

the news of the country as well as other hot topics. This is a popular show on Tolo TV called Qabe Goftogo.

Afghanistan Bans Pakistani Papers!

In late September Afghanistan's government put a ban on Pakistani newspaper.  There has always been friction between the two countries but this put it over the top. Afghanistan leaders' man reason for this ban  was because they felt that the Pakistani papers supported the Taliban militants.

The Dawn reports: 

"In a statement, the ministry said the newspapers were a conduit for Taliban propaganda.

 The news is not based in reality and it is creating concerns for our countrymen in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan,” the ministry said in a statement. ”Also, the newspapers are a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen.” 

This seem to be yet another case of censorship within a country and another battle for freedom of information for that country's people. Although this is  strictly speculation but the government are not taking any chances with this. It is unfortunate because now the people of Afghanistan can no longer receive news from Pakistani. 

The BBC News reports:

"It authorized police to impound Pakistani newspapers in the three eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan. The news paper is a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen" and has ordered police forces in east Afghanistan to confiscate all copies."

With the police of Afghanistan seizing all the Pakistani papers that is currently in the country and stopping all papers from entering the boarders of the country, it is clear that the government is serious and will put down any kind of support the newspapers may bring the Taliban.

Rod Norland and Declan Walsh of The New York Times reports:

"Intermedia Pakistan, an aid group that specializes in news media development, recently conducted an analysis of how Afghanistan is portrayed in the Pakistani news media. Its executive director, Adnan Rehmat, said there was a strong pro-Taliban bias after the 2001"

Afghanistan and Pakistan have always had problems and in the past and Afghanistan has portrayed Pakistan in a negative light and by banning their newspapers makes the Pakistani image worst in the eyes of the people. This could be a possible first step to Afghanistan banning any outside information that would go against the government.