USAID cellphone program aims to enhance Afghan media

The U.S. Agency for International Development is promoting a project to give Afghan mobile phone users free nationwide access to Afghanistan's newspaper, radio and TV news stories.

The project -- called Mobile Khabar, which roughly translates to "mobile news" in Pashto, Dari, Arabic and other regional languages -- is based on two beliefs. First, a wider audience and higher revenue will improve Afghans' ability to produce in-depth, well-sourced journalism, and, second, most Afghans have the ability to discern truth from fiction when given the opportunity to consult a variety of sources.