Afghanistan - Media

Limited service to principal cities and some smaller towns and villages is provided by the government-operated telegraph and telephone services. Prior to 2001, there were some 30,000 telephones currently in use. Local telephone networks were not operating reliably in 2002. There is no commercial satellite telephone service locally. The first television broadcast took place in 1978. As of 1997, there were 63 radios and 4 television sets per 1,000 population.

Prior to the fall of the Taliban, the major newspapers, all headquartered in Kabul, (with estimated 1999 circulations) were Anis (25,000), published in Dari and Pashto; Hewad (12,200), and New Kabul Times (5,000), in English. In January 2002, the independent newspaper Kabul Weekly was published after having disappeared when the Taliban seized power. The first issue carried news in Dari, Pashto, English, and French. UNESCO is providing aid to journalists and technical media staff, including those of national television. It works to strenghthen the Afghan News Agency by training journalists, and has projects for the development of public service broadcasting. More than 100 high-quality television productions from all over the world were sent to Radio Television Afghanistan in 2002. That year, an Internet-equipped computer training center was established within the Ministry of Education in Kabul.