Written evidence from BBC World Service
in Afghanistan and Pakistan
1. EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
BBC World Service is the world's foremost provider
of independent and authoritative news, offering radio, web and
mobile services in 32 languages and two flagship television channels
in Arabic and Persian. Broadcasts are funded through the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid. It has
a weekly audience of 180 million -
the highest of all international broadcasters. Operating under
the BBC's Royal Charter, the World Service has full editorial
and managerial independence.
- BBC World Service, through its provision of independent
and trusted news and analysis, has and continues to make a significant
impact in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a major contribution to
building an informed society in these fragile and unstable countries,
both prominent in HMG's international priorities.
- It stands apart from domestic media for its depth
of analysis and complete impartiality and makes this an inclusive
process through expanding participatory tools. In rural areas
where its services are most relied upon, BBC World Service acts
as a bulwark against insurgent communications strategies through
its values of impartiality, accuracy and independence.
- Through this, it brings credit to the UK as audiences
appreciate the BBC for what it does and in turn have a more positive
view of the UK.
However, to maintain this impact and to continue
to be a relevant contribution to Pakistani and Afghan societies,
the BBC must adapt to changing trends in media consumption. To
be able to do this, dedicated funding will be required and BBC
World Service has outlined proposals for how this may be achieved.
2. ABOUT BBC
WORLD SERVICE
BBC World Service is the world's foremost provider
of independent and authoritative news, offering radio, web and
mobile services in 32 languages and two flagship television channels
in Arabic and Persian. Broadcasts are funded through the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office by a Parliamentary Grant-in-Aid. It has
a weekly audience of 180 million -
the highest of all international broadcasters, larger than all
the US state-funded international broadcasting services combined
at less than half the cost per user. Operating under the BBC's
Royal Charter, the World Service has full editorial and managerial
independence.
Afghanistan
The Persian/Pashto Service broadcasts a schedule
of 15 hours daily in Dari and Pashto. There is a news bulletin
every hour plus current affairs analysis, audience talk shows
and educational programming including the popular AEP soap opera
New Home New Life, as well as cultural and music programmes.
There are also two daily news and current affairs programmes in
the Uzbek language for Uzbek speakers mainly in the North of the
country. The programmes are broadcast on short wave throughout
the country, as well as via a network of 21 FM relays in main
cities. BBC Persian television is also available on satellite
in Afghanistan.
In addition, the BBC World Service Trust - the BBC's
international charity - runs the Afghan Education Projects (AEP),
producing educational programming covering health, education,
governance and human rights and including addressing the underlying
causes of radicalisation and conflict through drama. AEP is the
largest media-for-development initiative in Afghanistan, working
with a wide variety of organisations and institutions, including
the Afghan Government, Afghan broadcasters, non-governmental organisations
and schools. AEP programmes are broadcast by the BBC World Service.
They are then re-broadcast on 40 private FM radio stations and
on the state broadcaster Radio Afghanistan (RTA).
PAKISTAN
BBC Urdu broadcasts two hours of daily news and current
affairs on short wave plus news bulletins on 37 FM partners. BBC
Urdu also operates a fully multimedia online service with news,
analysis, forums, video reports, blogs, live/on-demand audio,
plus video reports available via online partners (e.g. YouTube).
As well as its Persian, Pashto and Urdu Service offices
in London, BBC World Service has bureaux in Kabul, Mazar, Herat,
Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and employs nearly 100 locally-engaged
journalists, producers and other staff in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The BBC's correspondent in Tehran was expelled following the elections
in Iran, and it has not yet been possible to replace him.
3. THE MEDIA
ENVIRONMENT IN
AFGHANISTAN AND
PAKISTAN
3.(a) Access and trends in media technology
In Afghanistan, radio access is the principal
source of information, with access around 85% to 90% in all areas.
Other media technologies are expanding but there are broad disparities
between urban and rural areas (where over 70% of the population
lives). This is leading to an increasing urban-rural media divide
for local media access.
TV access is growing, especially among the new urban
middle class for whom over 90% have access in urban areas as opposed
to circa 50% in rural areas. This growth is being spurred by increasing
provisions in electricity, currently 42% of Afghan households
have an electricity supply: as this increases, TV viewership will
rise too, and replace radio as the main source of information
in main cities. Already 21% say television is their main source
of information for national news -
51% say radio.
Mobile phone access has expanded rapidly. In May
2010, the Afghan Government estimated mobile phone reach was around
85% of the population with 13.5 million mobile phone subscribers,
an increase of 4.5 million subscribers in a year. 65% of users
send text messages according to the Asia Foundation.
Afghanistan has limited access to internet (6%) and
is hampered by poor infrastructure. Websites, blogs and social
networking sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are still
a long way from becoming fully developed means of communication
inside Afghanistan. The Taliban still however post music videos
on YouTube "to raise morale, patience and sentiments of
the nation".[7]
Internet access should grow considerably once the extension of
the fibre optic cable, which connects Afghanistan with the outside
world, is completed, with this expected to increase internet access
from the current 5% to 20% by 2012.
In Pakistan, television has already become
the dominant media platform. A BBC World Service survey at the
end of 2008 found that over 90% of the adult urban population
and 67% of the rural population watch at least once a week. Cable
and satellite TV access was 61% in urban areas (up from 45% in
the previous year), in rural areas it had risen from 4% to 8%.
Audiences in rural areas however are more reliant on state-run
TV channels and radio broadcasts on medium or short wave. Qualitative
research indicates that TV consumption has become part of family
culture for many as an integral part of the Pakistani household
- one focus group participant responded that: "without
TV, I would feel as if someone very dear in the family has died".
Internet access in Pakistan is growing slowly but
its reach is still below the average for Asian countries, with
a penetration rate of 11.3% estimated in December 2009. This figure
may neglect the political impact that the internet has, as demonstrated
by the role of Pakistani bloggers in by-passing domestic media
restrictions imposed during the state of emergency in 2007, spreading
news about demonstrations and arrests. Mobile subscribers have
been growing more rapidly, from fewer than one million in 2001
to nearly 100 million as of December 2009.
3.(b) Character of the domestic media environment
In Pakistan, state-controlled television has a dominant
position with the government-owned Pakistan TV as the most watched
station, but this is now being challenged by rapid growth in satellite
and regional-language TV channels.
However, this growth has not yet led to improved
quality in news and analysis. Most private broadcasters' offerings
remain relatively unsophisticated and under-funded. Their journalists
lack training, and their independence is compromised by media
owners' affiliation with political parties and individual politicians.
Pakistanis complain about repetitive formats, poor quality and
ambulance chasing. An analysis by Human Capital undertaken for
BBC Global News in December 2009 registered concerns in Pakistan
in relation to domestic standards of journalism, with commercial
pressures felt to be leading to a decline in serious news provision
and a tendency towards sensationalism.
On commercial radio, private FM stations mostly broadcast
music and talk shows as there are restrictions on broadcasting
news and current affairs. Pakistan's regulator PEMRA rules state
that stations may only broadcast local news and rebroadcast news
and current affairs of the national broadcasters (PTV and PBC)
and BBC Urdu. In recent years, the BBC has faced difficulties
with PEMRA in maintaining FM news broadcasts in Pakistan. The
service launched in June 2007, was disrupted and the BBC was taken
off air by the PEMRA; the BBC subsequently challenged this in
the Pakistani courts, and the situation was further complicated
when the state of emergency was declared, although short wave
services were unaffected. FM news broadcasts were restored in
May 2009, but there were more difficulties in March 2010 which
resulted in stations being allowed to carry a maximum of three
ten minute bulletins daily, now provided by the BBC to 37 stations.
The operational environment for journalists also
has an impact - Pakistan is one of the most dangerous countries
for journalists to work in. In 2009, according to the Pakistani
media resource centre Intermedia, 10 journalists were killed,
10 kidnapped and 70 assaulted and there were a total of 163 cases
of direct attacks on the media, including murders, assaults, kidnappings,
explicit threats, censorship cases and attacks on media properties
and establishments. The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
and large parts of Baluchistan are effectively no-go areas for
journalists.
In Afghanistan, the rapid growth of the media industry
following the fall of the Taliban in 2001, has slowed in recent
years, with only a handful of new radio and television stations
launched since May 2009. There are now about 100 radio stations
and more than 40 television channels operating across Afghanistan.
Media ownership ranges from the Afghan Government -
which includes provincial political-military powers -
and privately-owned media, to media funded with the help of foreign
assistance programmes. Local strongmen control much of the area,
including the media, and reporters are divided along ethnic, linguistic
and political lines. Most TV channels promote their own particular
political, religious, ethnic or tribal interests.
Pressure from insurgents, powerful former warlords,
drug dealers and officials has meant that journalists are afraid
to touch on controversial subjects such as national unity, crimes
committed by specific warlords, and corrupt practices. In its
2010 annual survey of media freedom in 195 countries and territories,
the US-based media watchdog Freedom House described Afghanistan
as "Not Free", placing it at 165 out of 196 rankings.
Acts of violence against journalists rose by 70% in 2009, the
majority committed by government agencies, according to the Afghan
media development organisation Nai. This has contributed to the
lack of impartial and authoritative analysis and editorial depth
in the domestic media.
4. BBC WORLD
SERVICE'S
IMPACT IN
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN
BBC World Service has had a presence in the region
for nearly seventy years and now broadcasts language services
in Urdu, Persian, Pashto, Uzbek and Urdu. It has had a historic
role as the de facto national broadcaster and a lifeline
service when no independent media existed there. There has since
been an explosion in local media in Afghanistan and Pakistan,
but BBC World Service leads as the most trusted source of news,
information and analysis on TV or radio in the region. The impact
of this service was acknowledged in the Afghan Government's National
Development Framework in 2002: "Our people are poor, the
majority is illiterate, but the sophistication of political debate
and awareness is remarkable, in great part due to the international
media".[8]
BBC World Service has a weekly audience in
Afghanistan of 6.5 million, and over nine million Pakistanis listen
weekly. Its importance in Pakistan is greatest in rural areas
which deliver 78% of our audience. A survey in early 2009 interviewed
a sample of 4,000 adults in the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan:
30% rated radio as the most valuable source of information, with
13% saying television. When asked about which stations they listened
to regularly, 25% said BBC Pashto, followed by Voice of America's
Radio Deewa at 16%. One indication of the value of the BBC comes
from the rural areas and villages of southern Afghanistan, where
local people have asked the Mullahs in their mosques to adjust
the evening prayer times so that they can listen to the BBC programmes.
BBC World Service achieves this impact in Afghanistan
and Pakistan through a schedule of domestic and international
news with a strong emphasis on discussion, and interactive debate
on civil society and democratic politics. There are also education
and development focused-programming provided by the World Service
Trust including the popular drama serial New Home New Life.
Some examples of the regular analytical and participatory programmes
that BBC World Service provides to facilitate and inform public
discussion in the region include:
Talking Point: live weekly
phone-in programme dealing with important political, social, cultural
and economic issues in the context of News & Current Affairs.
Listeners ring in and put questions to a studio guest, usually
a government minister, regional governor, politician or other
well-known public figure. It has proved very popular with our
listeners and generates a big audience response, examples of subjects
discussed recently include "Is it possible to separate
the Taliban and al-Qaeda from each other?" and "How
can the future Afghan Government win the public confidence and
trust?"
Investigative reports:
weekly 12-15 minute investigative report slot on a topical issue,
discussed with relevant people and analysts.
Jirga: weekly 10-minute
slot in the Pashto programme for southern Afghanistan, usually
recorded locally by our stringer, discussing important local issues
with local people. Examples include the problems of education
in Helmand or taxes and revenue in Kunar.
There are strong examples of the effect of this discursive
and analytical approach in BBC World Service's stories that have
had a major impact on informing the public agenda. For example:
Pakistan Floods: As the
worst floods in the region's history submerged one-fifth of the
country, BBC Urdu collaborated with the BBC World Service Trust
to start broadcasts three times a day aimed at providing vital
information to flood victims. In many instances, officials conceded
that they came to know about the gravity of the situation in a
particular area from our broadcasts. These Lifeline Pakistan
broadcasts proved so popular that when we planned to end them
after one month, several government officials, ministers and aid
agencies requested us to continue them as a result of which we
are still on air. More funding has been provided for at least
two months.
Plane crash in Afghanistan:
After a Pamir Airways passenger plane crashed in May 2010 and
44 lives were lost, BBC World Service's Afghan stream broadcast
reports, interviews, a Talking Point programme and challenged
Afghan officials about the demand for stringent air safety regulations.
The issue was then taken up by the Afghan Government, with the
President ordering a review of air safety regulations as well
as reviewing the air transport companies.
Missing People: In the
years following 9/11, thousands of political activists were picked
up by Pakistani intelligence agencies as terror suspects and never
heard of again. Their families petitioned every avenue from government
officials to courts of law with little result. Because of the
sensitivity attached to the issue, the local media were just not
reporting the story. BBC Urdu developed some very high profile
programming highlighting the plight of the families of these missing
people. From setting up live webcasts to carrying out independent
investigations, we kept the issue in focus till the Government
came under enough pressure from international human rights agencies
to respond. Encouraged by our coverage, the families formed an
association and the matter was eventually taken up by the country's
Supreme Court and led to the release of hundreds of such detainees.
Alongside this, educational programmes funded by
the BBC World Service Trust and broadcast on BBC World Service
have a powerful effect on informing people's decisions. For example,
the flagship radio drama, New Home New Life, is Afghanistan's
most popular cultural programme with a huge following. Its educational
value has been demonstrated by a United Nations report showing
an association between listenership and lower casualties from
landmines, suggesting that regular listeners were only half as
likely to be involved in a mine incident as non-listeners, because
they acted on well-researched advice embedded in a number of long-running
storylines.
Surveys in the region confirm a role of providing
a vehicle for an informed society and the value attributed to
that by audiences, as indicated by the results of a 2010 Human
Capital report (below). Net strength of agreement is based on
the weighted average score after assigning scores of +2, +1, 0,
-1 and -2 to responses of "strongly agree", "agree",
"neither agree nor disagree", "disagree" and
"strongly disagree" respectively:
There was strong agreement in this survey over these
positive characteristics compared to other international media
organisations, which included:
- The standards of balance, fairness, authority
and trust, backed up by an extensive newsgathering resource and
the highest editorial values, resulting in highly informative
and edifying content.
- The perception that the BBC is independent from
the UK Government and truly international in outlook.
- The breadth and depth of the BBC's coverage.
- An important history of providing trustworthy,
accurate and credible journalism.
Providing this brings credit to the UK. The survey
demonstrated that 84% of respondents who had listened to BBC World
Service in Pakistan said it made them think of the UK more positively.
Nearly 90% considered that the UK's provision of BBC World Service
to be essential or very important.
This is also an area where the UK has a comparative
advantage over its ISAF partners on trust and cost effectiveness.
Qualitative research by Kantar media in February 2010 suggested
listeners perceive Voice of America as more biased and having
an American agenda, although they describe it as an innovative,
challenging and informative station. This is important to note
as the US Government places increasing emphasis on media and communications.
The US Regional Stabilization Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,
revised in 2010, commits to an increase in communications supporting
media from £50 million in FY 2009 to £140 million in
FY 2010:
"The Taliban and al-Qaeda use information
as a weapon, dominating the information space. While our previous
strategy focused largely on traditional public diplomacy and communications
tools, we are now elevating our communications efforts in importance
and innovation. New programs will empower Afghans and Pakistanis
to challenge the extremist narrative and offer their own vision
for Afghanistan and Pakistan's future."[9]
Professor Paul Collier's view is that building an
informed society is an essential requirement to effective development.
Access to information enables citizens to hold Governments to
account and helps establish an informed partnership between Government
and society. By creating fora for exchange of ideas and views,
BBC World Service helps Governments develop policies that benefit
the many, not the few, rather than being driven by sectional or
ethnic interest. With a focus on dispassionate and informed analysis,
and its use of participatory tools, BBC World Service, through
its output, news agenda leadership and qualitative impact, helps
grow informed societies in areas where effective development is
most difficult and corruption prevalent.
5. PROPOSALS
BBC World Service has outlined the proposals below
as part of its submission to the UK Spending Review (July 2010).
These would only be possible if dedicated additional funding is
available. One option would be to consider whether they could
be funded through ODA.
We propose to provide TV programming in Urdu targeted
towards Pakistan's growing middle class, distributed via partners
-
or, if budgets permit, a full BBC channel.
- In Pakistan, despite huge pressures, a middle
class has emerged that is more politically confident than before,
which has driven demand for democratisation and respect for human
rights in recent years - and has the potential to act as a major
internal stabilising force in the country. Most urban households
now have access to cable television, and the middle class is hungry
for news which is independent of political bias and has a quality
of insight and analysis that no Pakistani news provider currently
provides. Market research undertaken by BBC World Service indicates
dissatisfaction with the level of insight currently provided by
TV and over-emphasis on breaking news - considered to be sensationalist,
inaccurate, biased in presentation and forced to toe the government
line.
- BBC World News, the BBC's English language international
news channels, ranks well in market research with its TV competitors
such as CNN on credibility and accuracy, but audience research
indicates that an offer in Urdu specifically targeted for the
Pakistani audience is in demand. Furthermore, the 2010 qualitative
research prepared for the BBC Trust by Kantar media reveals that
the use of local correspondents and the Urdu language by the BBC
Urdu Service is a real area of strength. It is generally perceived
as authentic, clear and simple for all Urdu speakers. It helps
to make the service relevant to opinion formers and even more,
in their view, for the wider Pakistani population - and is felt
to help people speak better Urdu.
- BBC World Service's research indicates that launching
a TV version of the BBC Urdu Service would be universally very
popular and provide much needed depth of leadership in news and
analysis on Pakistan's dominant medium, constituting a long lasting
and powerful contribution to the welfare and development of Pakistani
society, something that would substantially contribute to HMG's
'particular emphasis to helping Pakistan transform itself into
a more stable, prosperous and democratic state'.
- Programmes would offer detailed analysis, searching
interviews and debates, giving citizens a unique opportunity to
call their politicians to account. They would offer a wider, international
perspective, explaining how global developments are affecting
Pakistan, and how events in Pakistan are seen by the rest of the
world. Programmes have a broad agenda, covering a wide range of
topics such as culture, religion, IT, business and economy, technology,
health and sport.
We propose to increase hours of broadcast for
Pashto radio, and to explore opportunities to launch TV programming
in Pashto when funding and market conditions permit.
- In Afghanistan and in Pakistan's tribal areas,
radio remains the main source of news, and BBC World Service leads
on trust and audiences in these areas. However, competition for
these audiences and communities in vital areas comes from insurgency
communications campaigns. The influence that these communications
have in increasing violence and instability inhibits the welfare
and economic development of fragile states. As the insurgency
agenda uses targeted mobilisation to influence communities and
individuals to participate in and support the insurgency, both
locally and globally, and shifts the perception of the conflict
through partisan portrayal of victories and defeats. As David
Kilcullen has written: "In military terms, for AQ the
main effort is information; for us, information is a supporting
effort. Al Qaida is highly skilled at exploiting multiple, diverse
actions by individuals and groups, framing them in a propaganda
narrative to manipulate local and global audiences. This propaganda
capability is central to the objective of creating and manipulating
local allies and portraying itself as the vanguard of the resistance".[10]
- As part of a broader communications strategy,
the Afghan Taliban intermittently run a number of unlicensed FM
radio stations from areas where they feel confident they can broadcast
without interference from the US-led coalition or hostile Afghan
groups. Reports of this activity have been found in the southern
and south-eastern provinces of Helmand, Ghazni, Nurestan, Khost
and Paktia. Radio Shar'iah has been described as a typical example,
with reports of content including commentaries, pro-Taliban songs,
exhortations to Afghans to stay away from the election process
and threats to kill those who co-operate with international forces.
The Afghan Taliban also operates a multi-lingual website via which
a half-hour daily radio broadcast can be listened to.
- In Pakistan's tribal regions, the Taliban have
been broadcasting on FM stations since 2004. Many of these were
run by local notables and clerics and some, most notoriously that
operated by Maulana Fazlullah in Swat, openly acted as instruments
of Pakistani Taliban control of their localities.
Unlike these partisan communications, our audiences
know that the BBC is completely independent and impartial - and
that is precisely why it is central to diffusing their impact.
It earned the trust of the population decades before the insurgency,
by honestly and impartially reflecting a plurality of viewpoints
and political persuasions. The values that the BBC upholds therefore
- accuracy, impartiality, independence, fairness - are a bulwark
against the use of media and communications to present distorted
and hostile perspectives. It is those values that have enabled
BBC World Service to retain global trust and credibility. We propose
this expansion to our services therefore as a fundamental contribution
to HMG's development priorities on 'stabilising insecure areas'
and 'improving the effectiveness of the Afghan Government'.[11]
11 October 2010
7 Taliban Cultural Commission's guidelines for singers
and poets, May 2008 Back
8
National Development Framework, Afghan Government 2002 Back
9
See the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and
Pakistan's Regional Stabilization Strategy revised in 2010. Back
10
Dr David Kilcullen, The Accidental Guerrilla, 2009 Back
11
DFID Structural Reform Plan, 2010 Back
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