海角大神

International leaders' pledge this weekend to provide $16 billion in aid to Afghanistan over four years comes as a relief to many Afghans who have long worried that the international community would turn its back on them as happened after the Soviet war.聽

Though a substantial commitment, $4 billion a year in aid represents a drop in the level of assistance Afghanistan has become used to since the US-led invasion in 2001. Already, the United States has scaled back reconstruction spending in the country by 34 percent, causing a number of Afghan organizations to reconsider their strategies and future sustainability.聽

Among those already affected is the Afghan news industry.聽News agencies have been forced to make cuts,聽cancel programming, and reduce coverage as the tide of international聽funding recedes. The agencies that remain unaffected are predominantly聽those backed by political groups, often ethnically based, which聽predictably produce news with an agenda and protect party elites from聽scrutiny.

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, independent Afghan media was聽all but nonexistent. For international donors looking to聽establish an open political culture, supporting a nascent independent media聽was a clear choice.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a reality that after 2001, most of the media outlets were聽established or started through the funding of foreign countries. Until聽now, they were just looking after foreign funding and they never聽thought about standing on their own two feet,鈥� says Professor Mohammad聽Wahid Gharwal, head of the journalism department at Kabul University.聽鈥淚鈥檓 worried that if the international community decreases or stops聽funding the Afghan media, there won鈥檛 be a vibrant situation for the聽Afghan media in the future.鈥�

One of the most respected new outlets has been Pajhwok Afghan News, an聽agency with reporters across the country, many of whom international聽journalists would tap in dangerous areas.

Pajhwok was started entirely with funding from the聽United States Agency for International Development聽in 2004 with a聽plan to gradually reduce financial support until it was independent. That day came early this year. However, little more than six聽months after US funding ended, the situation already looks grim. Last聽month, the news organization laid off 70 of its 186聽employees 鈥� a 38 percent reduction.

A response to the loss of donor funding, the cuts were also preemptive. Pajhwok's senior editors say they want to prepare for a future post-2014 when they say they expect ad revenues to drop as companies who worked with foreigners look to save money cutting ad budgets. They're also expecting their international subscriber base to shrink as the world inevitably loses interest in Afghanistan without a NATO presence here.聽聽聽

Disappointed about the cuts, Pajhwok鈥檚 leadership says they are聽optimistic they can survive without聽donor聽funding.

鈥淚f we鈥檙e not thinking about it now, it will be very difficult in聽2014,鈥� says Danish Karokhel, director and editor in chief of Pajhwok.

Pajhwok is far from the only media outlet affected by reductions in聽donor spending. Other papers and TV stations have used funding to聽expand their coverage into different regions of Afghanistan or offer聽educational programming.

The newspaper 8am Daily recently lost a grant to provide coverage of聽four northern provinces along with another grant that supported聽investigative journalism projects. Shah Hussain Murtazawi, the paper鈥檚聽deputy chief editor, says that the paper used the investigative grant聽to focus largely on uncovering government corruption, a critical issue聽in Afghanistan. Without external funding, he says the paper cannot聽afford such investigations and is now limited to basic news coverage.

鈥淣ow we have climbed all the way to the peak and if we fall from here聽it won鈥檛 help. I think the international community should realize this聽and not let go of the Afghan independent media,鈥� he says.

News outlets are not necessarily collapsing as a result of the funding聽shortages, but many say they have had to adapt in ways they would rather聽not to stay afloat. Saba TV has relied on grants to provide聽educational programming for its viewers; however, in recent months聽it鈥檚 lost much of this funding and has had to cancel several independently聽produced TV programs.

The loss of the funding does not mean Saba has stopped broadcasting. But to fill the former time slots, which used to educate聽people about health and governance issues, the station now runs聽Turkish soap operas dubbed in Dari. Without funding, Abdul Wahid聽Hamidi, managing director of the Saba Media organization, says his聽station has been forced to become more responsive to consumer demands,聽which call mostly for music videos, soap operas, and Indian movies.

鈥淚鈥檓 afraid that if funding fully stops, yes, we have 30 stations, but聽every one of them will only play music and TV dramas,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he聽main challenge with Afghanistan and other countries like it, is to聽differentiate between what people want and what people need. Still, in聽Afghanistan, people want entertainment, but they need education.鈥�

In this climate, the only media organizations immune to funding聽problems will be those backed by political parties, say most Afghan聽media experts. If agenda-based media manages to grow and potentially聽replace or overshadow ailing independent organizations, this could聽prove particularly problematic in a country like Afghanistan where聽many people lack the education required to tell the difference between聽news and subtle, or even overt propaganda.

鈥淰ery few people can differentiate between the independent media and聽the other sources that belong to political leaders or groups, and聽these people are only in the cities. Even in Kabul, people cannot聽think or tell the difference. They just know that this is the聽government channel and they call all others independent media,鈥� says聽Shahla Farid, a civil rights professor at Kabul University.