The
sounds of a free and
blossoming press are now
being propelled off a hill
in Ghazni Province from
where Mujahideen fighters
were once launching rockets.
The building housing
Radio Jaghori, in
Jaghori District, once
housed a faction of these
fighters during the civil
war in the 1990s. Later a
Taliban spy post where
locals were tortured, the
building has now been
resurrected by the media and
stands as a symbol of free
thought in Afghanistan.
Internews, with its
partner, Future Generation,
opened the station in early
January. Future Generation
works on sustainable
development through
vocational institutes and
professional trainings such
as this radio station. Four
staff and seven volunteers
produce five programs,
including Nama ha wa
Ahangha Shuma (“Your
Letters and Your Songs”), a
program designed to
facilitate dialogue within
the community. The station
also plays a selection of
programs from the Tanin
initiative. It plans to add
programs on culture and
poetry, education, sports
and business in the next few
weeks.
Broadcasting on 93.5 kHz
FM, Radio Jaghori can
be heard for 10 hours every
day. With Salaam Watandar,
the daily four-hour national
cycle of programming
produced by Internews in
Kabul, and in-house
productions, the people of
Jaghori are now connecting
with the rest of Afghanistan
and receiving news to make
informed decisions about
their futures. Radio
Jaghori’s signal reaches
an estimated 30,329 people
in and around this remote
district.
Funded
by the United States Agency
for International
Development, Radio
Jaghori joins the
Internews-assisted network
of 29 radio stations around
Afghanistan, broadcasting to
eight and a half million
people. For more
information, contact Sanjar
Qiam at +93 70 277 071,
sanjar@internews.org.
