BBC World Service – Written Evidence (AFG0015)
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BBC World Service – Written evidence (AFG0015) International Relations and Defence Committee inquiry into The UK and Afghanistan September 2020 Introduction BBC World Service provides trusted news to radio, TV and digital audiences around the world in 42 languages including English. It is chiefly funded by the UK Licence Fee with additional funding of £86m a year coming from Government in the form of a Grant channelled via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office which has enabled the biggest expansion of the World Service since the 1940s. The World Service’s expansion (known as the World 2020 programme) included the launch of 12 new language services aimed at Nigeria, Ethiopia & Eritrea, India, Serbia and the Korean peninsula, enhanced programming in English, Arabic and Russian and the opening of new bureaux in Nairobi, Lagos and Delhi. Government funding has been confirmed up until September 2021 – funding beyond that point will be decided as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). A large percentage of the additional funding the World Service receives from the Government is classed as Official Development Assistance (ODA). As well as providing impartial, accurate and independent news wherever there is a need due to media freedom restrictions or lack of means of access, the World Service plays a role in holding power to account, offering insight and fresh perspective during conflicts and as a defence against fake news and disinformation. This year’s Global Audience Measure1 showed that BBC’s news services now reach 438m people across the globe each week, an increase of 13% on last year. In Afghanistan, the seventh largest market for the BBC outside the UK, the BBC reaches 11.4m people every week – over 50% of the adult population – via the BBC Afghan service in Dari and Pashto, BBC Persian, BBC Uzbek as well as via commercially funded BBC World News TV and bbc.com/news. BBC Pashto reaches a weekly audience of 8.3m in Afghanistan while the weekly reach of BBC Dari in the country is 4.3m (both services also reach diaspora audiences outside Afghanistan). 1 The Global Audience Measure (GAM) is an annual update of how many people are consuming the BBC weekly for all services in all countries across all platforms (television, radio, website and social media). The BBC’s unrivalled status in Afghanistan as the most reliable, trustworthy and independent news source2 and its extraordinarily high reach means that it is regarded by some as a national broadcaster. BBC Monitoring tracks, translates and analyses local media sources to make sense of what is happening on the ground around the world. It has highly experienced regional teams based around the world, who are immersed in the local media environment with a nuanced understanding of language and context. BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international charity. It operates in some of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries, with media and communication that saves lives, protects livelihoods, counters misinformation, challenges prejudice and builds democracy. It is not funded by the Licence Fee and relies on donors and partners to carry out its work. BBC Media Action has worked in Afghanistan for nearly two decades on projects and programmes addressing media development, political participation and accountability, health, education and gender rights and inclusion. This evidence to the Committee’s inquiry into the UK and Afghanistan includes insight from BBC Monitoring on media freedom and current challenges for media in Afghanistan and sets out to illustrate the important role BBC World Service and BBC Media Action play in the country. The Afghan media landscape: media freedom and other challenges (analysis provided by BBC Monitoring) Media Environment Since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, private media have boomed. The market is crowded; there are approximately 60 private TV channels and 175 radio stations, most broadcasting locally. Around 69% of homes have a TV and the medium is a key source of news and entertainment. Internet availability is patchy and fewer than 20% of Afghans are online. The most common means of online access is via smartphones. Around 90% of households own at least one mobile phone. Facebook is particularly popular among young people and the political class. Readership of the printed press is very small, although the leading daily newspaper reaches many more people online. 2 GAM 2020 – Brand Tracker Thanks to financial and logistical support from the international community, private media have developed to the point where they have edged out state media in terms of influence. Media Freedom Article 34 of the Constitution allows for freedom of the press and of expression. However, the Media Law contains restrictions regarding content that is deemed “contrary to the principles of Islam and offensive to other religions and sects”. There have been some systematic attempts to restrict media freedom. In June 2020, the government sought to amend sections of the Media Law that allowed journalists to protect the confidentiality of sources. The draft proposal, which had been sent to Parliament for ratification, was recalled after widespread criticism. Foreign Investment Iran is known to fund some Afghan media while Saudi Arabia and Salafi circles in the Gulf and India have also reportedly moved into the media environment as the West reduces its involvement. Saudi Arabia runs satellite TV channels which target Persian- speaking Sunnis of the region and reportedly bankrolls a small number of Afghan outlets. Journalism Under Threat The media have been beset by an increasing number of physical attacks; 2017 and 2018 were particularly deadly years for journalists, among them the BBC journalist Ahmad Shah, killed in 2018. Mohammed Nazir, a BBC driver, was killed in a vehicle bomb attack in 2017 as he was driving journalist colleagues to the BBC’s Kabul office. The bold journalism that was practised under international protection has waned. Media outlets now feel pressure not only from the Taliban, but from newly-assertive conservative and ethno- nationalist circles, government officials, warlords and local power brokers. Insecurity, the NATO drawdown and Western officials’ talk of lowering expectations for reform and democracy appear to be encouraging various actors to try to exert more control over the media. As a result of the above, self-censorship has grown and outlets and reporters are tending to avoid objective reporting on sensitive developments. On the other hand, reporting that is intended to appease the powerful is on the rise. Financial Struggles Afghanistan’s media are under increasing financial pressure. In seeking new sources of funding, they are vulnerable to manipulation by other countries in the region which are jockeying for influence as the West disengages. Financial insecurity has coincided with the departure of the bulk of Western forces. Advertising revenues are shrinking fast and international donors are tightening purse strings. The BBC in Afghanistan Background BBC World Service started broadcasting in Pashto in 1981, at the height of the Cold War, in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As information in the country was under strict government control, the BBC’s radio broadcasts in Pashto became staple listening for millions in Afghanistan. Mullahs were asked to adjust the evening prayer times to allow people to tune in to the BBC. From the mid-1990s, the weekly radio soap-opera New Home New Life in Pashto as well as Dari (produced by the BBC’s international charity BBC World Service Trust – now BBC Media Action) started to raise topical issues such as awareness of mines (a scourge that claimed thousands of civilian lives), immunisation, and refugees’ return to their villages. Aimed at empowering women, it was also a radio drama in its own right, bringing together entire families and, where radio sets had to be shared with neighbours. The BBC in today’s media landscape Today, there are lots of sources of international information in Afghanistan. But it is to the BBC that people still come to get confirmation of what they’re hearing or seeing elsewhere. For audiences there, the BBC continues to be one of the main windows to the rest of the world. The BBC now reaches 11.4m people in Afghanistan weekly via radio, TV, online and social media platforms – over 50% of the adult population. A third of the BBC World Service’s non-English language services’ audience is aged 15-24 and this engagement with younger audiences can be seen in Afghanistan where 39% of the audience falls into the 15- 24 age bracket. Women in Afghanistan are also strong users of BBC content making up half of the audience although engaging women on digital platforms is a challenge that the BBC faces along with other media. In order to address this, the BBC is currently in the process of launching new Instagram channels in both Pashto and Dari aimed directly at women in Afghanistan. In addition to the BBC Afghan service in Dari and Pashto, BBC Uzbek offers TV and social-media content tailored for Uzbek- speakers in Afghanistan. The BBC Uzbek Monday to Friday TV news programme for Afghanistan which reaches 1.8 million viewers every week relaunched in January 2020 in an extended, 15-minute format with an even greater emphasis on Afghan and regional developments, technology, women’s issues, sports and Uzbek cultural heritage. The BBC’s TV offer in Afghanistan is available: in Pashto - on Shamshad TV, in Uzbek - on Arezo TV, and in Persian - on Ariana News TV (the programmes are also available via the services’ websites and YouTube and Facebook channels). BBC Persian TV content is also available directly on satellite to audiences in Afghanistan. The English- language TV channel, BBC World News TV, and the English-language website, bbc.com/news are also available.