Ottawa Citizen on Humaira Habib of Radio Sahar

How media bolster still-fragile freedoms: Ousting the Taliban was just the beginning

Don Butler
The Ottawa Citizen

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Four years ago, Humaira Habib didn’t even know what a radio studio was. Today, she manages Afghanistan’s only women’s community radio station, Radio Sahar, reaching a potential audience of 700,000 in the city of Herat.

Along the way she’s had to overcome stiff resistance from authorities in Herat province, and even threats of imprisonment. She’s also witnessed the murder of female colleagues who dared become journalists.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, progress has been steady if slow. “Now we are really happy,” she said yesterday during a panel discussion on the media and democratic development sponsored by the International Development Research Centre.

“We can broadcast and produce any kinds of programs on our radio station.”

In a country in which most people are illiterate and access to electricity is far from universal, radio is the most accessible and popular mass medium.

Radio Sahar opened in 2003. At first, it was hard to find women willing to speak on the radio. “Now it’s easy, because they really like to talk about different issues,” said Ms. Habib, who became station manager in 2005.

Initially, the non-profit station broadcast just two hours a day. It now broadcasts 13 hours daily and produces more than 40 weekly programs. Of the 15 staff members, 11 are women, including all the top staff.

Radio Sahar remains an anomaly in Afghanistan, whose media are otherwise dominated by men. The station, says Ms. Habib, “is a symbol to all women that they can do things they weren’t allowed to do before.”

Another panelist, Mathatha Tsedu, editor of South Africa’s Daily Press, said press freedom has improved since the fall of apartheid, but not as much as outsiders might think.

Many laws restricting the free flow of information from the apartheid era have been retained, he said, even though they conflict with constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression.

As well, some of those who fought apartheid and who are now in government “became easily irritated when media criticized their work, insinuating that because they fought for freedom they should thus be trusted to protect it,” Mr. Tsedu said.

“As media professionals, we accept that freedom is never won, but forever defended.”

Mr. Tsedu said South African editors have launched a campaign called “Media Freedom is Your Freedom,” to help the public understand that “media freedom is their freedom to receive credible information that helps them make decisions about their lives.”

Mr. Tsedu said journalists’ mission must be to represent the powerless and the voiceless. If they fail to do so, “we sell out the ideals on which journalism is based.”

That role is especially important in a world of instant information, where the powerful and the wealthy are able to shape people’s perceptions by getting their views out first.