Last week marked three years since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, ending a period of almost two decades of relative media freedom. Many independent media and journalists have since closed or relocated abroad due to the restrictive new policies. The country plummeted in press freedom rankings: Reporters Without Borders put Afghanistan just behind Malaysia in 2021 and ahead of India; in 2024 it was the third-worst country globally in terms of press freedom.

Despite this traumatic event, the Afghan media community has reconstituted itself. It continues to serve audiences in Afghanistan from places like Canada and the US (and to a lesser extent Western Europe). Moreover, it continues to sustain valuable know-how and experience – painstakingly built over years when Afghanistan was a unique media success story for the region.

The JX Fund and The Fix Research and Advisory (The Fix’s affiliated consultancy and research firm) recently prepared a study of Afghan exiled media, surveying 47 publications. It shows a media landscape that has overcome great odds to stay relevant to people in Afghanistan, but whose financial future is more precarious than ever.

Overcoming censorship and other barriers to maintain audience ties

Afghanistan presents a set of unique challenges for media managers – it has one of the world’s youngest populations (the median age is estimated at 20 in 2024) but less than a fifth of Afghans have access to the internet. Literacy is also an issue, particularly for women: in 2022 just over 52% of men and 22% of women were assessed as literate by UNESCO.

This would be a challenge under any circumstance, but it is especially difficult for exiled media, which face heavy restrictions on both reporting and distributing their content. A combination of social media and entertainment content have helped build relations, including among younger users (note: music is essentially outlawed under the Taliban).

The study shows a fairly rapid growth in audience reach across social media platforms for most exiled media. For instance, the number of Facebook likes of top 5 Afghan media in exile reached 2 millions in April 2024. Media surveyed had over 3 million X followers as of April of 2024 and over 36 million cumulative YouTube views.

Nonetheless, television remains arguably the most important platform – with satellite playing a particularly critical role. Nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan’s population is covered by television broadcasts. At least 12 Afghan TV projects operating in exile are available through satellite, websites, social media, apps, and streaming platforms.

However, the Taliban has already imposed several restrictions on television as well, foreign media in particular. VOA, DW, and BBC were banned, including BBC’s news bulletins in Pashto, Persian, and Uzbek, DW’s political talk show “Aashti” in Dari and Pashto on local partner ToloNews.

The situation is further complicated by Afghanistan’s diversity – the country is divided on ethnic and religious lines, and a notable share of media that emerged after the Taliban’s 2001 toppling were financially backed by entities connected to specific political, ethnic, or religious groups, or even foreign interests. This financial support shaped programming and editorial decisions, leading to a media landscape characterized by ethnic divisions

The dire situation of women under Taliban rule is also a major issue. A BBC study found that 7% of women did not have access to any form of media nor to mobile phones (versus 3% for men). With women facing gender-based discrimination in their media work (in addition to severe limitations on freedom in general, and constant physical threats), it is important to note that close to a fifth of exiled media projects (9 out of 47 outlets surveyed) are focused on women.

A history of donor dependency – and limited prospects for change

Foreign funding played a huge role in Afghan media development: the country was among the 10 biggest recipients of OECD member international media aid in 2010-2019 (see chart). This was manageable while the media remained in Afghanistan – with a relatively low cost base and benefitting from sustained aid budgets going to the country (all while hoping the advertising mark would eventually help cover a meaningful share of the costs).

The situation changed radically after the Taliban takeover. Many of the media staff had to relocate to Western countries that had visa programs for Afghans (mainly the US, Canada and a handful of West European countries), significantly increasing costs. Closed projects were relaunched or rebranded from abroad.

The result is a sector that is both heavily dependent on grants (the study shows that roughly 90% of surveyed media budgets were covered from donor resources) and faces rapidly rising costs. The combination of new outlets launched and higher costs per media means the estimated donor support going to Afghan media will likely more than double between 2022 and 2024 (note: this year’s numbers are based on forecasted budgets, which may be cut due to lack of funding).

With support for media in dire circumstances being increasingly sought after – the rising number of conflicts and authoritarian regimes is increasingly stretching donor budgets – this puts additional pressure on Afghan media in exile to find new sources of funding.

Although their new bases of operation, located in some of the biggest donor markets in the world, theoretically open up opportunities to find new sources of support, this is easier said than done. Moreover, Afghan media face a challenge that requires them to come together and present a vision for how the sector will evolve in what could be a long period of exile to come. After decades of difficult work building a uniquely free media ecosystem in a highly repressive region, the challenges of Afghanistan’s media workers are far from over.

Jakub Parusinski and Aizhan Kazakbaeva are experts working at The Fix Research and Advisory. The full study is available at this link.

Source of the cover photo: Wakil Kohsar AFP/File

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