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The ever-offensive Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Kabul this week specifically targeting employees of widely viewed Tolo TV. Seven died, two dozen more injured. In a statement, the Taliban called Tolo TV and 1TV “informational warfare tools of the American and Crusading forces,” reported Human Rights Watch (January 21). They also warned all media outlets to “stop their evil activities.”
Media watchers in Afghanistan (Reuters, RSF, HRW) noted that the Taliban has attacked media workers before but not, or rarely, in this scale. Tolo TV and sister channel Tolo News, considered credible news sources, are owned by Saad Mohseni’s Moby Group, considered Afghanistan’s biggest private media operator. 1TV, known in Dari Persian as Yak TV, is also considered an independent news source.
Afghanistan is considered to have a vibrant media scene, most outlets producing local programs and augment schedules with content from outside sources, developed when NATO forces chased out the Taliban from major populated areas in 2001 after five miserable years when, among all else, singing was outlawed. Among other popular shows, Tolo TV produces and broadcasts reality talent show Afghan Star.
Western international broadcasters also participate in Afghanistan’s media scene, mostly supplying programming to local broadcasters. The BBC World Service recently announced a new daily Pashto language news program for broadcast on satellite network Shamshad TV. (See BBC WS presser here)
People who use media most trust media more and search engines most of all. Traditional media has slipped. Online media - blogs and aggregators, presumably - fares less well and social media even less.
Big PR firm Edelman released its 2016 Trust Barometer ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos meeting reporting perceived trust in all institutions rising, particularly among the “informed public.” The report did, notably, point out an “inequality of trust” directly related to inequality of income. Edelman surveyed 33,000 people in 28 countries for the report.
“We are now observing the inequality of trust around the world,” said CEO Richard Edelman in a presser. “This brings a number of potential consequences including the rise of populist politicians, the blocking of innovation and the onset of protectionism and nativism.” In country-specific detail, for example, the general population in Poland doesn’t seem to trust anybody.
Edelman defines the “informed public” as more wealthy (top 25% personal incomes), more educated (college degree or better), reporting “significant media consumption and engagement in business news and public policy” and between 25 and 64 years of age, about 15% of the world’s population. In other words, the typical CNBC addict, most of whom are either at Davos or really want to be there. The “mass public” is everybody else.
Upheaval in recent years has dominated the Greek media sector. While difficulties remain there are a few rays of optimism as 2016 begins. Soon there could be TV licenses.
Athens station Best 92.6 returned to the airwaves this week. The alternative rock music station was quite popular until previous owner Liberis Publications closed in 2013. Under unique provisions in Greek law employees were able to take over the station, putting it on the air for a few weeks last year. Money always an issue, an arrangement for ad sales with Attica Media Group, owner of Rock FM, brightened the prospects.
The station returned to the air with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” with only a few technical bobbles through the day, reported radiofono.gr (January 18). (See more about media in Greece here)
Also new to the Athens airwaves this week is Hellenic 93.2, a Greek music station, largely oldies, owned by Real Group. It replaces Orange 93.2, a top 40 station. The target audience for Hellenic 93.2 is folks over 40 years. It might have been on the air a few weeks earlier but for a strike by the technicians union.
In TV land, meanwhile, Greek media regulator ESR is moving forward on private sector broadcasting licenses, more or less absent for decades. The expected result, coming soon, is far fewer national channels, fewer than five said State Minister Nikos Pappas, quoted by greekreporter.com (January 12). “We do not want non-viable companies that rely on bank borrowing, which creates the opaque terms and exerts pressure on the political system, which in turn pressures the banks.”
Journalists really like to interview other journalists. No talking-head current events show is without at least one reporter from a newspaper or broadcast outlet. Business leaders and politicians, mostly, are consultant trained to keep to the talking points. Another journalist offers a departure from the PR script.
Oops. Appearing on Dutch channel L1 (January 17) WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) free-lance correspondent Claudia Zimmermann implied that reporting on the public broadcaster is slanted in the government’s favor. “As a public service broadcaster we are required to tackle the problem in a more positive way,” she said when questioned about news coverage of refugees and the Cologne New Year’s Eve incident. WDR is the largest of the regional German public broadcasters and is headquartered in Cologne. (See more about media in Germany here)
“That’s not the attitude of WDR,” said spokesperson Ingrid Schmitz, quoted by tagesspiegle.de (January 18). “Our journalists work completely independently.” Political interferance in German public broadcasting is prevented by statute.
Ms Zimmermann walked-back from the faux pas. “I was talking nonsense under pressure from the live situation. I said total nonsense. This is tremendously embarrassing because I’ve never been prompted to slant or point a report in a particular direction.”
Appraising the embarrassment with a little fact-checking, Dutch public TV NOS correspondent Jeroen Wollaar (January 18) found Ms Zimmermann less than well-informed about the Cologne New Year’s Eve incident. “She was asked about facts surrounding (the) Cologne (incident) and said there were a thousand suspects. In fact there are 13 at this time.”
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