You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Afghanistan citizen journalist posts' category.
I have been trying to find someone to work with from Southern Sudan as it is not always easy for us as a news organisation to get on the ground reportage and personal, local stories from there. The idea was first raised by the editor of Outlook - Gavin Poncia.
A great woman called Eman has been helping me out and she says that she will be forwarding me some more names of people who might be able to help. We’ve found out it’s not safe to give a recorder to someone living in a camp – there are also some bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome before recording can be done in some places.
My colleague, David Whitty just got back from Southern Sudan- see all his photos on flickr
His advice was that Juba might be the best place to find someone who is an English speaker with access to a good internet connection and with local links to the area.
Then I had a quick look on twitter. You can follow Your Story’s twitter updates here. I found a guy known as one of the “Lost Boys of Sudan” – he has quite a story of his own – read more about him here – and he has been studying in the US but who wants to return to his home country to help with giving medical treatment. I’ve emailed him to see if he is planning a trip there anytime soon and if he might want to do a Your Story citizen journalist report.
I also have been in contact with my Chicago high school students so hopefully I will get some audio from them this week.
Also been in contact with the very popular Afghan blogger, AfghanLORD.blogspot - who has been posting about Your Story on his blog, see the entry here.
He forwarded me a contact from someone who has recorded a harrowing interview with a woman who suffered domestic violence. I have seen some of the photos – which I still need to make some extra checks on so have to hold off on posting here yet.
If you would like to spread the word about Your Story on your blog, I am looking to expand my links into the blogosphere. If you can help, please let me know by posting here.
The feedback that we have been getting for Your Story citizen journalist Baktosh Siawash has been immense. He spoke to Shamsia, the girl who had acid thrown on her face by the Taliban as she was on her way to school.
The full story can be seen here on the Your Story homepage.
It has just been put on the bbcworldservice.com homepage and the news programmes home page.
Baktash emailed me this morning saying,
Dear Nina,
I hope this mail finds you in the best of health,
I got an email that My Blog win the Blog of the Day Awards for Saturday December 13, 2008.
Please have a look to my Blog.
http://afghancitizen.blogspot.com/
just I wanted to share it with you.
Also, he says
A few minutes earlier I heard my report from BBC radio on FM in Kabul.
Baktash will be writing a few words about how he found the whole experience of being a citizen journalist for Your Story, so I’ll post that here soon. Just want to take this opportunity to say thanks to Baktash for his hard work.
Any of your comments to Baktash’s piece would also be more than welcome.
Disabled people are a part of our society often overlooked, in life as well as in the mainstream media. The International Day of Disabled People seems like a good opportunity to raise awareness of the different provisions made for people who have a disability in different parts of the world.
Baktash, citizen journalist for Your Story in Afghanistan has been posting photos on his blog of people with disabilities in Kabul.
It would be nice to hear from a disabled citizen journalist to report on the conditions being faced in their country. I was particularly interested in hearing from African disability rights groups from South African groups like this one
to groups in countries like Swaziland and Nigeria. I might start a photo group on the Your Story flickr pool. Anyone wishing to contribute their pictures can join the Your Story flickr group upload them here or on the Your Story webform.
I remember the BBC spoke to a guy in Uganda who was fighting the country’s first ever case for discrimination on the grounds of disability.
There was an idea to get an update from him as a citizen journalist piece from Uganda. In the meantime, if you have a story on disabilty that you would like to share, you can comment here or via the Your Story website.
I got a video from a Your Story citizen journalist in Afghanistan.
There was a suicide bomber explosion nearby to where he works, so he went there to film what was going on.
When he got there he filmed with his mobile phone the scene. It was pretty graphic showing two legs that had been blown off and these body parts were lying on the pavement.
I cannot post that video
but I have taken a screen grab showing somebody covering the body parts here which is at the end of the mobile phone footage.
The reason I cannot show that video even though it has been sent to me and shows a first hand account of something that has happened in Kabul, is because of the BBC’s guidelines on decency about what we can show.
I think there is some discussion to be had about when a mainstream organisation is trying to engage with citizen journalism going on, on the web. We set ourselves apart by belonging to a big media organisation and I’m sure many of you agree to submit material on this basis but there is a clash of ideas going on.
This is between what people are seeing and reporting on – in a no holds barred and real way and what I as a responsible representative of a media organisation decide to put out there. What do you think I should do?
Thanks so much for all of you for posting about getting some citizen journalist material out of Afghanistan. Thanks also to the Afghan Lord for writing about Your Story in his blog (he sent me this msg about it) …
Dear Nina,
I hope you are fine. I also wrote a post with desciption of what you are doing in Your Story. I receive and e-mail from Herat in the west part of Afghanistan. He says, he has been doing such jobs since long time. Please ask your translator to help you with the below text and read my post here
http://www.kabuli.org/archives/media_and_blog/001671.phpI got my colleague to translate the message in this email …
Hello my dear friend my name is rafee form herat I have got a lot of interest in your project “your story” i’m interested and want to work in this field with you. I have been working for a long time doing the same thing and because I have enough time to travel to other places and villages I think i could help produce interesting programmes for you, therefore if it’s possible please help and guide me. i have got a weblog – and you can see it – the photos are interesting.
Thanks Rafee for your message – i could not view your photos as the link was broken but i am interested in working with you and others who have contacted me.
Here is some more information about Your Story in answer to some of the queries I have had…
Written words are accepted too which can go up on the website alone http://www.bbcworldservice.com/yourstory – if you have some english articles and photos that we can try and work on getting some of those stories up on the website http://www.bbcworldservice.com/yourstory.
Please upload your photos audio and video here or you can email me directly nina.robinson@bbc.co.uk
i am in talks with the BBC pashto section about trying to get more audio pieces, but if there is some way we can get english audio for the english radio network, that would be great. I am ordering some extra recorders which hopefully i should get in the new year.
all the best
Nina
I’m in touch with Afghan Lord who is a blogger based in Afghanistan. He is working on a similar citizen journalism project there.
This is one of his photos – you can see more here
He sent me this email today and I’m hoping that we will be able to collaborate in future on a citizen journalist piece ready for broadcast across the BBC World Service from Afghanistan. Not sure yet what would be a good focus for the story so I have asked him to send some of his ideas through.
Dear Nina,
We supposed to continue our workshops for teaching blogging (including multi-media) but we didn’t have money to pay the costs of oil, generator, internet and renting the place. So, we stopped for now but gave a proposal to an NGO in UK, hopefully they will get back to us, that will also deal with citizen journalism and media. The main aims are to develop blogging and citizen journalistm among young afghan.
Just wanted to let you know that how much we are close.So, please tell me more about your project.
thanks
That’s what I have done and I’m hoping to get something going here.
Recent Comments