Radio Azadi (formerly Radio Free Afghanistan) is the Afghan branch of the U.S. government's Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) external broadcast services. It broadcasts 12 hours daily as part of a 24-hour stream of programming in conjunction with

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...

(VOA). Radio Free Afghanistan first aired in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

from 1985 to 1993 and was re-launched in January 2002. Radio Azadi produces a variety of cultural, political, and informational programs that are transmitted to listeners via

shortwave radio Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 m ...

, satellite and AM and FM signals provided by the

International Broadcasting Bureau The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) is the technical support outlet within the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) (former Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG), which is a U.S. independent agency. The IBB supports the day-to- ...

. According to Radio Azadi, their mission is "to promote and sustain democratic values and institutions in Afghanistan by disseminating news, factual information and ideas".

Present

The U.S. Congress appropriated funding for broadcasting to

in December 2001 as part of an effort to build a peaceful and democratic country, following the U.S.-led ouster of the

Taliban regime The government of Afghanistan, officially called the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is the central government of Afghanistan, a unitary state. Under the leadership of the Taliban, the government is a theocracy and an emirate with political powe ...

. Radio Free Afghanistan has since built a substantial audience in Afghanistan, with surveys showing it as the most popular radio station in the country. Radio Azadi produces a variety of programming—from special programs for youth and women to political satires and music and literary programs. Recently Radio Azadi conducted a joint seminar with

Kabul University Kabul University (KU; prs, دانشگاه کابل, translit= Dāneshgāh-e-Kābul; ps, د کابل پوهنتون, translit=Da Kābul Pohantūn) is one of the major and oldest institutions of higher education in Afghanistan. It is in the 3rd ...

's School of Journalism on “Media and Democracy.

Samiullah Mahdi Samiul ( ar, سمیع اللہ ) is an Afghan male given name, meaning ''listening to God''. it may refer to * Samiullah (Afghan cricketer), Afghan cricketer * Samiullah (Pakistani cricketer), Pakistani cricketer * Samiullah Khan (field hockey) ( ...

is the bureau chief of Radio Azadi in Afghanistan since 2019."

Media environment in Afghanistan

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says t ...

journalists in Afghanistan are under constant threat of intimidation from warlords, the Taliban, and other extremists. Attempts have also been made to tighten media control in the name of "respect for Islamic values." Concurrently, the number of private television and radio stations has grown in Afghanistan, leading to increased competition among media operating in the country.

History

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty first launched this service on October 1, 1985 during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979–1989). Its purpose was "to bring objective and uncensored news and information to the population and resistance forces of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan." The service initially consisted of twice-weekly thirty-minute broadcasts in Dari and later expanded to hour-long broadcasts five days a week in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

and

Dari Dari (, , ), also known as Dari Persian (, ), is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the term officially recognised and promoted since 1964 by the Afghan government for the Persian language,Lazard, G.Darī ...

. Radio Free Afghanistan was the first expansion of RFE/RL's broadcast area in thirty years. Broadcasts stopped in 1993 for budgetary purposes and began again in 2001 following the

U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operati ...

. Congress authorized the appropriation of eight million dollars in operating costs for FY 2002 and nine million dollars in capital costs that would fund the construction of a new

shortwave transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

Highlights

In May 2002, U.S. First Lady

Laura Bush Laura Lane Welch Bush (''née'' Welch; born November 4, 1946) is an American teacher, librarian, memoirist and author who was First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009. Bush previously served as First Lady of Texas from 1995 to 2000. ...

addressed the people of Afghanistan in a speech delivered from the Prague headquarters of RFE/RL. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

in Washington, D.C. recently launched a new exhibit named "Voices From Afghanistan" showcasing some of the thousands of handwritten scrolls and letters sent by listeners. Recent awards: David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award for “enormous courage in continuing to deliver the news to their fellow citizens”; two National Union of Journalists of Afghanistan awards for aiding the reconstruction of Afghan society through balanced and objective reporting and Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries award for excellent in reporting. In the run-up to Afghanistan's presidential elections in 2009, Radio Azadi hosted a historic presidential debate featuring President

Hamid Karzai Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...

and two of his leading contenders. It was Afghanistan's first-ever debate to feature an incumbent president and was televised on Afghan national TV. In 2009, Congress appropriated six million dollars of additional funding to allow Radio Azadi to begin broadcasting to the

-speaking border regions on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border. In 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to questions submitted by listeners in Afghanistan during an interview in Radio Azadi's studios in Prague.

External links

Radio free Afghanistan website in Dari

Radio Free Afghanistan website in Pashto

References