Assisting the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan in Strengthening the Mass Media

1. Considering the political situation in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) Soviet mass media are to continue work to explain the actions of the Soviet Union directed at defending the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, the good neighborly relations of friendship and cooperation between the peoples of the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, and unmask the anti-Soviet, anti-Afghan policy unleashed by imperialist circles and the Peking hegemonists. Give comprehensive aid to the Afghan mass media in propagandizing the policy of the new leadership.

2. Draw the attention of the Afghan friends to the need to increase the publications reflecting the positive changes in the domestic life of Afghanistan. The USSR State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting and the “Novosti” Press Agency are to widely distribute these materials through their foreign channels.

3. In order to help the DRA mass media charge:

USSR Gosteleradio:

with allocating, in cooperation with the USSR Ministry of Communications, available radio broadcast equipment and doubling the time of Soviet radio broadcasts in Dari and Pashto on fixed frequencies, ensuring their reception in Afghanistan and contiguous areas of Pakistan;

receiving a group of five Afghan television and radio workers in the USSR for a three-month internship in the 2nd or 3rd quarters of 1980;

reorganizing the correspondents' office of USSR Gosteleradio in Kabul into a branch and adding the positions of radio correspondent and secretary to its table of organization;

sending a three-person Soviet television photography group to Afghanistan (correspondent, camera operator, and sound man) in the 1st or 2nd quarters of 1980 for two months;

increasing the amount of television materials send to Afghan television, primarily topical television news items and counterpropaganda material. Prepare a half-hour program about the USSR [entitled] “Our Great Northern Neighbor” dubbed in Dari for a monthly television program.

TASS:

help the “Bakhtar” Agency organize a foreign service. With this in mind, TASS and the USSR Ministry of Communications are to set up a Kabul-Moscow radiotelegraph communications channel and provide a subsequent relay of information received from Kabul to Arab countries, Europe, and countries bordering the DRA;

help the “Bakhtar” Agency to sign an agreement with the Indian agency UNI about distributing materials about the life of the Afghan people through its channels;

send the Afghan side 20 teletypes with Farsi type and spare parts free of charge and also Soviet-made equipment and operating manuals worth up to 200,000 Soviet rubles;

send an adviser for up to six months to be put at the disposal of the “Bakhtar” Afghan News Agency to help in organizing its work;

receive up to six workers of the “Bakhtar” Afghan News Agency in Moscow for a three-month internship, entering them temporarily on the TASS rolls within the allotted limits of the labor and wage fund and paying the expenses for their winter equipment [ehkipirovka] of the interns;

send give specialists to the DRA to help train personnel, install, and tune transceivers.

APN:

increase the total single-issue circulation of the magazine “Akhbar” published by APN in the DRA in Dari and Pashto to 20,000 copies;

beginning in 1980 increase the publication of literature by APN in Dari and Pashto, primarily on issues of the theory and practice of the CPSU and the experience of political and ethnic policy in the USSR;

organize the publication of illustrated newspapers with labels [nadpisi] in Dari and Pashto.

The USSR State Committee for Publishing, Printing, and the Book Trade:

in coordination with the DRA Ministry of Information and Culture send a group of specialists to Kabul to improve the organization of production, the training, and upgrade the qualifications of the local printing house workers;

in coordination with the DRA Ministry of Information and Culture and jointly with the USSR State Committee for Professional and Technical Education organize the training of Afghan printers in the USSR within the established quota;

in conjunction with the USSR Ministry of Installation and Special Construction Work train and send specialist to Kabul to help start a six-color offset newspaper rotary printing press.

4. The USSR Ministry of Higher and Specialized Secondary Education jointly with the Afghan side is to select up to 20 Afghan students with an education in the humanities studying in Soviet higher educational institutions and train them to work in Afghan newspapers, radio, and television, and also to hold talks with the Afghan side about the acceptance of Afghan students in the journalism schools of Soviet higher educational institutions in 1980 and 1981.

5. The USSR State Committee on Cinematography is to conclude an agreement with the Afghan side for collaboration in the area of the joint creation of documentary films in Dari and Pashto showing the changes in the life of the Afghan people, denouncing the subversive activity of imperialist circles and Peking against the independence of Afghanistan; assistance to the Afghan side in distributing Soviet feature and documentary films dubbed in Uzbek and Tajik.

6. For the material, technical, and financial provision of aid to the Afghan mass media charge:

The USSR Ministry of Finance:

with providing a targeted designation of appropriations from the state budget to cover the expenses of TASS and the USSR Ministry of Communications in organizing a Kabul-Moscow radiotelegraph communications channel and providing the relay of information received from Kabul for 1980 and succeeding years;

with attributing the expenses for sending specialists to Kabul through the channels of the USSR Goskomizdat and USSR Minmontazhspetsstroy to the USSR State Budget [appropriation] for giving free aid to foreign countries;

with jointly deciding the issue with APN of the source of financing of the expansion of Agency's publishing activity in Dari and Pashto.

The USSR Ministry of Communications:

to organize the radio communications channels of the “Bakhtar” Agency from Kabul with the capitals of 10 provinces as the places are ready; send the Afghan side 20 complete RSO-300 and RSO-30 transceivers with antennas and gasoline generators worth up to 100,000 Soviet rubles;

send 10 specialists to the DRA to help train personnel, install, and tune transceivers.

The Ministry of the Communications Equipment Industry is to manufacture 10 RSO-300 transceivers in 1980 from the USSR Ministry of Communications stock [fond].

USSR Gosplan is to allot an additional 80,000 rubles to TASS in freely convertible currency to purchase equipment for the Afghan news agency “Bakhtar”.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade is to purchase 20 Siemens teletype machines with Farsi type in 1980 with delivery to TASS for the Afghan news agency “Bakhtar”.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation:

is to provide passage of Afghans to Moscow and back to Kabul with payment in Soviet rubles (six people upon request of TASS, five people upon request of USSR Gosteleradio);

provide delivery to Kabul of 20 RSO-300 and RSO-30 transceivers with antennas and gasoline generators at the expense of the USSR Ministry of Communications with payment in Soviet rubles;

provide delivery to Kabul of 20 Siemens teletypes with spare parts and also Soviet-made equipment and operating manuals allotted by TASS at TASS' expense in Soviet rubles.

The Main Directorate of Foreign Tourism of the Council of Ministers is to permit payment for the boarding of TASS' Afghan interns in Moscow according to the price list used for Soviet citizens.

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