National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA; Da Afġānistān Millī Rādīo Televizion, Rādīo Televizion-e Millī-ye Afġānistān, branded as ملی (meaning national)) is the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanistan, based in Kabul. This governmental organ has a national television station (Afghanistan National Television) and a radio station (Radio Afghanistan) as well as news media. As of August 16, 2023, Yousef Ahmadi serves as the acting Director General of RTA. His predecessor was Atiqullah Azizi, who held the position since September 2021.

History

Radio Afghanistan started with Radio Kabul in 1925 (1304 by the Afghan calendar), during the era of King Amanullah Khan. Two radio transmitters with the capacity of 400 watts were procured from the German company of Telefunken, one of those has been installed on Koti Londoni near the bridge of Artel which subsequently started to its operation and the second one had been transferred to Kandahar which on that period the musical programs and news were only being broadcast for few hours. Television broadcasting facilities and studios were constructed in 1976 with grant aid from Japan, and the television broadcasts started on 19 August 1978. Starting in 2002, the government started planning and attempting to reform RTA into a public service broadcaster. However this never came to fruition due to disagreements about the reform between president Hamid Karzai and other cabinet figures, despite the passing of several media laws. Eventually in April 2014, RTA was re-designated as an 'independent directorate', effectively meaning that the Ministry of Information no longer has direct control of the organization. Karzai's successor Ashraf Ghani also voiced his vision for RTA to become independent from the government.

Structure

Radio Television Afghanistan has regional sub-stations for all provinces of Afghanistan which operate radio services, and in some provinces, basic television at a provincial level. They broadcast material produced at a provincial level, interspersed with news bulletins distributed by the Kabul-based news desk. These stations are usually closely affiliated with the provincial governors' offices. Broadcast content includes high volumes of government messaging.

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