Afghanistan
Radio Afghanistan initially began its broadcasts as Radio Kabul in 1906, launching foreign-language broadcasts via shortwave and medium wave in 1956. The station began broadcasting as Radio Afghanistan in 1965. It launched Television operations in August 1978, and was renamed National Radio-Television of Afghanistan (RTA).
Following the ousting of the Taliban regime in 2001, RTA relaunched its radio broadcasts while the reconstruction of RTA’s TV studios and transmitter commenced with grants from the Japanese government — all RTA’s TV studios are equipped with TV digital devices and a new SONY OB Van is equipped with 4 digital cameras.
In addition, RTA installed uplink and downlink facilities with assistance from the Indian government, which also funded the setup of a TV studio and transmitter in Jelalabad and a 100 KW SW transmitter in Kabul. RTA launched satellite TV broadcasts via INSAT-3 in mid-2004. It is linked to the Hot Bird and Galaxy 19 satellites that cover all of Europe and America.
RTA has benefited from training provided by NHK, RFI, JICA, CFI, DW, BBC as well as training fellowships by the ABU, AIBD, NHK and UNESCO. RTA has also received technical and financial assistance from IBB, DW, BBC and RFI. An Internet network project, within RTA Kabul and almost 80 percent of its regional stations, has been implemented with financial assistance from the Italian government through UNESCO.
RTA is also collaborating with the German Konrad Adenaur Foundation (KAS) to produce three different social economic programmes.