PESHAWAR: The provincial capital – as in the 1980s during Moscow’s invasion of Afghanistan – continues to attract the Afghan media, with a second Kabul-based TV channel scheduled to launch a bureau in Peshawar, said sources on Wednesday.
“Lemar TV – a subsidiary of Kabul-based Tolo TV – is making arrangements to set up a bureau in Peshawar, and the management of the channel is negotiating with local journalists to hire their services,” the sources told Daily Times. Shamshad TV was the first Afghan TV channel to set up a bureau in Peshawar.
The ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001 allowed independent TV channels to begin operations in Kabul for the first time in the country’s history, and – according to Afghan journalists – 14 satellite-based TV channels are already operational. The sources said in light of the large number of Afghan refugees, the Afghan media was focussing on Pakistan to boost revenue and increase viewership.
“This is good news that another Afghan TV channel is launching operations in Peshawar,” said Janullah Hashimzada, who works for Shamshad TV at the Peshawar bureau.
“Bureaus of Afghan TV channels in Peshawar would also help strengthen bonds between media workers of the two countries … we hope Pakistani channels will also follow in our footsteps,” said Hashimzada. No Pakistani TV channel has yet opened a bureau in Kabul, nor hired a local Afghan journalist to cover events in neighbouring Afghanistan.
“Kabul is quite expensive these days, and a war story from Afghanistan is not as important now as it was in the 1908s … the same story is now emanating from within Pakistan,” said Jamshed Baghwan, bureau chief of Express News TV.
However, he did say that Pakistani channels should launch operations in Kabul to let viewers in Pakistan know about Kabul’s attitude towards their country.
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