Radio Mashaal
Radio Mashaal is a trusted source of information in Pakistan’s tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan. It covers issues of local concern in an area where extremist propaganda is widespread.
Website page views
(2024)
Facebook video views
(2024)
Instagram video views
(2024)
YouTube video views
(2024)
About the Service
Radio Mashaal has engaged Pashto-speaking audiences, especially youth targeted for recruitment by the Taliban and militant groups, since 2010.
Radio Mashaal is accessible to a growing audience via SW and AM radio, web, satellite, and social media.
Call-in shows mitigate audiences’ isolation by providing a bridge between residents and their political representatives as part of solutions journalism.
Countrywide coverage of Pakistan’s February 2024 parliamentary elections garnered more than one million video views in three days.
Extensively reports on the plight of millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan facing forced deportation to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
Reports regularly on the practice of underage and forced marriage among conservative Pashtuns.
Weekly radio and TV episodes of Sarway highlight the successes and struggles of young women living in conservative northwestern Pakistan.
Da Zwanano Ghag or Voice of the Youth engages young people on issues relating to politics, security and extremism, sports, and education.
Reaching Audiences
Media Climate
Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index ranks Pakistan 152nd out of 180 countries.
In 2018, the government closed Radio Mashaal’s Islamabad bureau and blocked its websites.
Latest Updates
RFE/RL Relaunches Gandhara Website As One-Stop Shop For Afghanistan, Pakistan News
Since its inception in 2014, Gandhara has reflected the mission and journalistic standards of RFE/RL in its reporting and analysis about Afghanistan and Pakistan.
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal Marks 10 Years Of Countering Extremism In Pakistan
Ten years since airing its first two-hour broadcast, RFE/RL’s Pashto-language service has stubbornly pursued its mission to provide an alternative to extremist propaganda.
RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal Marks Nearly A Decade Of Impact In Pakistan’s Tribal Regions
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) this week is marking almost a decade of reporting serving as a powerful alternative to extremist propaganda in Pakistan’s remote and restive tribal regions along…
Service Director
Amin Mudaqiq
Amin Mudaqiq is the Service Director of RFE/RL’s Pashto-language service to Pakistan’s tribal regions, known locally as Radio Mashaal. He previously served as Kabul Bureau chief for RFE/RL’s Afghan Service from 2004-2011. Prior to joining RFE/RL, Mudaqiq worked in the US consulate in Peshawar as an Information Assistant, and as editor of Ittilaat, the U.S. government’s Dari/Pashto publication.
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