BBC Afghan service expands its live radio output with three new programmes

LONDON, Jan 07 (NNI): The BBC Afghan service has expanded its daily radio output with the addition of three new live broadcasts: one-hour audience-participation programmes, Word of the Day in the morning and News and Views in the evening; and Global Newsbeat bulletins in Dari and Pashto.

The one-hour live interactive programme, News and Views, which started piloting in late September, has now become part of the evening schedule following a successful trial run. This daily programme is split into two half-hour Dari and Pashto sections. Popular presenters, Abdullah Shadan and Mohebullah Mudessir (Dari) and Spin Tanay and Saeeda Mahmood (Pashto), bring their own unique style to the programme, making a smooth transition from one language to the other, a BBC statement said.

Aired at 20.30 Afghanistan time (16.00 GMT), News and Views invites listeners to engage with the BBC in summing up the day’s main events, and to join the debate on air, via phone, the BBC Afghan service’s Pashto and Dari language sites – bbcpashto.com and bbcpersian.com/Afghanistan – and the BBC Afghan service’s Facebook page.

The morning live interactive show, Word of the Day (which started in December), connects the global with the local, inviting the listener to share the news closer to home. Presenters, Matin Samsoor, Gulistan Shinwari, Jawad Samimi and Sharif Walid, bring the BBC news closer to the lives of the audiences across Afghanistan, engaging with them via phone and Facebook. While the Dawn current-affairs radio magazine offers an international press review, Word of the Day looks at how the stories are being covered by the Afghan papers.

Younger audiences are at the heart of the Pashto and Dari editions of BBC World Service’s Global Newsbeat bulletins launched in late December. Presented live from Kabul and broadcast alternately every half hour, between 10.00 and 16.30 local time, Global Newsbeat delivers BBC journalism that connects with young Afghans. Global Newsbeat brings them the global news in a new, fresh and dynamic style.

Meena Baktash, Editor of the BBC Afghan service, says: “The BBC Afghan team has worked tirelessly to deliver this new programming to our audiences. We’ve listened to their feedback and we know that they are keen to air their views on the issues of the day. Now they can have their say on News and Views in the evening, while in Word of the Day in the morning they get an excellent opportunity to share their local news with our global audience. With the Global Newsbeat bulletins we are reaching out to young people – those who will make up our audience base in the years to come – while also retaining the core standards and values of the BBC that have made us such a trusted news source in Afghanistan. We want our listeners to live the news with us.”

BBC World Service – of which BBC Afghan service is part – broadcasts to Afghanistan on shortwave and FM, in Pashto, Dari, Uzbek and English. Research suggests that the BBC’s international news services reach 6.5 million people (about 42% of the adult population) in Afghanistan on radio, TV and online each week (2013).